Chapter 5: The Age of Saucers (The 1950s)(Part 1)

As Flying Saucer claims made the rounds in the press, the debate raged on for possible explanations. Many sightings were dismissed by reporters and officials as mis-identifications, publicity stunts, or mirages. The Flying Saucer community was a strange mixture of classic Science Fiction fans, Occultists (including Theosophists), and Fortean researchers of the unexplained.

Shades of Things To Come: The Green Man Fictional Short Stories:

Harold Sherman wrote a series of fictional short stories about a green-skinned humanoid alien savior character called “The Green Man” from the distant planet of Talamaya which ran in Ray Palmer’s Amazing Stories in 1946. Sherman had also previously done a telepathy experiment in October of 1937 with explorer Hubert Wilkins while Wilkins was in the Artic and Sherman was in New York. The Green Man stories may have potentially inspired or influenced other examples of the “heroic alien savior” characters, including perhaps even the ones that claim to be non-fiction (such as Adamski and the Contactees of the 1950s which we’ll cover later).

I. 1950

On January 5th 1950, the low-budget B-film “Flying Saucer (1950)” hit the theaters and drive-ins. This was reportedly the first film dedicated to the subject. The film was a Scifi spy drama about the American Secret Service trying to obtain a Flying Saucer in Alaska before the Soviet spies could get their hands on it. In the film, the Flying Saucers are man-made aircraft created by an American inventor. The film is based loosely on the 1947 Kenneth Arnold account.

In January 1950, an article by Science Fiction (Scifi) writer Donald Keyhoe appeared in True Magazine entitled “Flying Saucers Are Real.” In the article, he suggests that interplanetary travel is responsible for the now famous Saucer sightings. Charles Fort similarly posited the bizarre airships and lights in the sky of his day as possible extraterrestrials.

As one of the few prominent voices declaring the Saucers to be real in publication, Donald Keyhoe’s notions, or the “ET Hypothesis,” caught on greatly in the Flying Saucer subculture. Later in June of that same year, Donald Keyhoe released a book of the same title “Flying Saucers Are Real (1950)” which has since become Public Domain and freely available. Within this book, he writes about a report from 1762: “I recall that Charles Fort accepted this, along with other early sightings, as evidence of space ships.”

The fresh-faced Saucer seekers of the 1950’s not only took inspiration from Charles Fort but also seemed to cite him to add a certain air of legitimacy to their research and to the Flying Saucer movement as a whole. By tying it back to an older pre-existing movement, which it undoubtedly had strong connections to, it told the reader that these supposed occurrences were not something new but instead a part of a larger trend of aerial anomalous phenomena.

In his True magazine article and his published book, Donald Keyhoe covers various sightings of aerial oddities beyond just Saucer-shaped objects, including 1800’s entries from the works of Charles Fort such as mystery dirigibles. He describes a variety of supposed oblong or cylindrical craft which were termed “torpedo-shaped” or “cigar-shaped” in Fort’s books Lo! (1931) and The Book of The Damned (1919) and repeatedly categorized as such by Keyhoe. These 1800’s reports from Fort seem to be the earliest usage of this term “cigar-shaped” in context of anomalous aerial phenomena which, after being re-emphasized in text by Keyhoe and others, would go on to be often repeated within the Flying Saucer community as a common descriptor for such shapes.

The Ether Ship Mystery and Its Solution, 1950:

Fortean researcher and parapsychologist with an interest in séance practices, Newton Meade Layne, who wrote under Meade Layne, was the founder of the “Borderland Sciences Research Association (BSRA).” He published the Fortean “Round Robin” journal, submitted clippings to the Fortean Society led by Tiffany Thayer, and was previously featured in the May 1949 issue of Ray Palmer’s FATE magazine working with Trance-Medium Mark Probert to contact spirits known as “The Inner Circle.” Layne also published a booklet titled “On Mediums and Mediumship (1949)” (as discussed in Chapter 4 of this history.)

As noted before: On October 9th 1946, during a meteor shower, Mark Probert in San Diego reportedly witnessed a strange winged flying machine with red lights. On the advice of Meade Layne via telephone, Mark attempted telepathic communication with the craft. Through this communication, he supposedly learned that these electric-motor-powered ships were called “Kareeta” and that they were purportedly piloted by advanced, wise, and peaceful beings who had been trying to contact the Earth for many years. They were reportedly attracted to a “column of light” emitting from the Earth at the time which made it easier to approach, though they still feared landing. The story was told in the pages of Round Robin’s October 1946 issue (Vol.2 No.10) in an article titled “WELCOME, KAREETA! (News-scoop on things to come)” by Meade Layne.

In 1950, Meade Layne released a small self-published booklet which he entitled “The Ether Ship Mystery and Its Solution (1950)” with the subtitle “A Booklet for Public Information.” One of the original booklets had a plain white cover which also had the words “Flying Discs” printed on it in red text. In the book, Meade Layne offered his own theories and insight on the Flying Saucer mystery. He wrote that they were technologically advanced ships, which he termed “Ether Craft,“ piloted by mysterious and spiritually-wise “Etherians” from a parallel realm or “Ether.” He concluded that they were not extraterrestrial, of subterranean (aka Inner Earth) origin, or man-made.

In the book, The Ether Ship Mystery and Its Solution (1950), Meade Layne writes:

“What are the Flying Discs? First let us say what they are not. They are not delusions, fantasy, or lies. They are not constructed by any foreign government, or by our own. They do not come from the depths of the sea — though some of them may enter the sea at times. They do not come from the Polar regions, or from Tibet or Java — though it is conceivable that some temporary base on our earth may be utilized. They are not constructed in the earth’s interior — though they may have some connection with underground races or be interested in them. They are not constructions of the Atlanteans or other ancient peoples, preserved in caverns against the coming day of need. We mention these hypotheses because they have all been seriously advanced.”

“Our categorical denial should really be read this way: We have no evidence that any of these explanations is correct, and none of them coincide with what we believe to be the correct facts. But we offer the first word and not the last in this matter. New data may appear at any time.”

Meade Layne was inspired by the outdated and obsolete early scientific ideas about “Ether” or “Aether” which was thought to be an unknown or undiscovered invisible substance or “fifth element.” It was a placeholder of sorts written about by Plato and Aristotle. The Greek term “Aether” means “pure, fresh air” or “clear sky.” It was also used by the early physicist Sir Isaac Newton who was also an occultist with an interest in alchemy. Meade Layne refers to his notion of a parallel “Ether” existing under various names such as the “Etheric plane,” the “Etheric level” or as “Etheria.” He writes about its parallel nature in the 1950 booklet, stating: “Etheria is here — if we know what here means! Along-side, inside, outside our world. … We look out across [our world] and do not see anything in it, or hear or feel anything in it, and so call it empty space. Meaningless words in the abysses of folly!”

Layne writes: “If there are colors we cannot see, sound we cannot hear, and dense and solid bodies which we cannot discover by touch, it is certainly not too difficult to conceive of a world which though possessing sounds, colors and material objects, is yet imperceptible to us. It would be as unknown to us, by direct perception, as a man is to an ant, or a bird to a beetle. And if ant or beetle, or a fish in its element could be questioned and could make reply, they would probably be deeply sceptical about the existence of men and birds — unseen and unseeable entities alleged to be living right along-side of them in the same world.”

In his “On Mediums and Mediumship (1949)” booklet, Layne cited the book “The Ether of Space (1909) by Sir Oliver Lodge,” which he repeatedly quoted, as an inspiration for many of his paranormal ideas. That book by Spiritualist Sir Oliver Lodge also used the term “Etheric.” Meade’s fascination with the Flying Saucer subject was likely partly inspired by his friend and associate Mark Probert’s supposed 1946 sighting as well which was reported before the famous Kenneth Arnold story.

Meade Layne explained that perhaps these beings could materialize and dematerialize, or MAT and DEMAT, by lowering or raising their vibration and therefore their density on a density spectrum thus becoming visible or invisible and tangible or intangible. “A little like slowing down a very fast fan until one can see its blades.” He explained that the reported variety in appearance of the craft was because they were experimental ships built by Etherians. He explained how visionary experiences were perhaps the result of Etherians as well, writing: “The clairvoyant who has etheric vision does not go anywhere, he simply begins to see what is invisible to most of us. These etheric worlds have their inhabitants, each according to its kind — and the number of such worlds is perhaps as infinite as the number of the interpenetrating ethers themselves.”

Layne posited sightings or interactions with the Etherians to be the explanation for much of mankind’s myths and religions. Layne wrote that “men [throughout history] thought of them as Gods or Angels, or spirits of the air or demons, embodied them in folklore and mythology, and forgot them little by little.” According to Meade Layne, “It has been known, in varying degrees, to adepts and initiates and occultists for thousands of years,” Layne writes, “Modern science has seen no occasion either to accept or reject [their existence.]” He described them as moral beings who could offer to share technology and spiritual wisdom or knowledge with humanity, especially the psychically attuned, if mankind could only approach them peacefully and “without blinding prejudice.”

This was an early example of a non-extraterrestrial (ET) explanation for Flying Saucers.

He also wrote that the Etherians were “neither friendly nor hostile on the whole, but mainly indifferent toward us. But they are not indifferent if we attack them, or pursue and annoy them, or make them uncomfortable (apparently) by our atobombs, the release of atomic or nuclear energies.” This is an early example of the newly-introduced atomic weapons influencing Flying Saucer media which would continue onward within the movement.

He went on to say: “These etheric craft have appeared at intervals throughout history, sometimes without definite correlation with Earth events, but always (it is said) when a civilization or culture had reached its peak and was entering upon a period of decline and fall. Their purpose was simply to observe and study the conditions and state of humanity, for their own information and their historical archives. They have also appeared prior to terrestrial convulsions, such as volcanic eruptions and earth quakes. In the present instance, it is likely that both reasons exist. The social and political state of the world is indeed parlous. Our weapons have become a menace to the Etherians themselves, and it is said that seismic disturbances are impending. Over the Pacific slope, for example, the flight of Ether ships has followed the magnetic meridians, north-and-south. It is said that the Etherians are doing this in order to observe the formation of the etheric vortexes which presage an earthquake; they are charting this area, and also the whole of the Earth’s surface, for the same general purpose of scientific study.”

Meade also wrote, on the subject of the atom bomb: “They may well have learned what we have been doing in the way of mass murder in the past few years. They undoubtedly understood swiftly what had happened after we ato-bombed Japan. If they were also aware of our religious and political situations the world around, to say nothing of vested interests, they would hardly fail to realize the danger of proposing advances in these fields.” He continued, writing on the possibility of the Etherians aiding mankind. “On the face of it we have what seems an equal chance of utter disaster, or of making in a few assisted years the leap from our present bedeviled condition into a comparatively golden age of knowledge reason and morality.”

In the book Layne states that perhaps “great events, either of a supernormal order, or great cataclysms of Nature” could awaken or enlighten mankind to “turn aside from old thoughts and consider ways of brotherhood and mutual understanding” and that perhaps “our Etherian brothers” might intervene in human affairs as a last resort to make something like this happen and ultimately lead mankind down the supposedly right path and towards a golden age of peace.

The somewhat similar ideas of “Masters” who have transcended physical form but remain on Earth in spirit to enlighten mankind with wisdom and teachings, as well as the idea of a forthcoming spiritual golden age, are both notions found within Spiritualist Helena Blavatsky’s religion of Theosophy and generally within the Theosophy-inspired New Age movement. Meade Layne’s 1950 booklet directly quotes Blavatsky’s book “Isis Unveiled (1877)” in which she says: “The universal ether, in the eyes of the ancients, was a boundless ocean pebbled like our familiar seas with creatures large and small, and having the germs of life in every molecule. . . here too dwelt the various races of elemental spirits.”

In addition to Meade Layne’s influence from Spiritualism séances and Theosophy ideas, the book also very briefly features Fortean Earl Wing Anderson quoting the supposed automatically written book “Oahspe (1882)” from Ohio Dentist and Spiritualist John Newbrough. The term “Etherean” (not spelled the same as Layne’s “Etherians”) is found in Oahspe along with notions of formerly-human angelic beings living above the Earth’s upper atmosphere in the “Etherean Heavens” and the “Etherean Worlds” with flying ships or star-ships. Comparisons between that book and the theories or views of Meade Layne can easily be drawn.

Frank Scully and The Aztec Flying Saucer Crash HOAX:

On September 8th 1950, author and Variety columnist Frank Scully put out a book titled “Behind The Flying Saucers (September 1950)” based on his earlier two Variety magazine articles on the subject from Fall 1949 and September 1950. Frank Scully was a religious Catholic who studied journalism at Columbia University. The book described a supposed March 1948 Flying Saucer crash landing in Aztec, New Mexico containing sixteen dead 3ft tall human-looking bodies burnt to a dark char (purportedly due to the ship’s port hole window being broken) and an unknown light-weight metal alloy allegedly stronger than any on Earth. It was also alleged that within a discovered Saucer were found “instruments which seemingly measured lines of magnetic force” that allegedly led Earth scientists to make new advancements in the field of electromagnetism. (This will become very relevant as the HOAX story unfolds.)

The exact origin of the four supposed ships, including a 100-foot large crashed Saucer, a 72-foot large crashed Saucer complete with hammock sleeping quarters and a toilet, and a smaller 36-foot crashed Saucer with two bucket-seats, a control board of buttons, tripod-style self-stabilizing silver spinning “steel ball” landing gear, and instruction booklets with undecipherable pictorial-type script, were reportedly unknown but the planet Venus is repeatedly speculated in the book by “Dr. Gee” as the most likely to produce such life. Thirty-four bodies were supposedly recovered in total, all supposedly found in three Saucers with the fourth being empty. Also allegedly found aboard were normal containers of abnormally heavy water, wafers as food, and a small single-dialed wireless communication radio torn from the corner of the cabin. The supposed ships were described as large spinning metal discs with a center stationary “cabin” containing portholes. They were reportedly put together without screws, rivets, or bolts, and were powered via electromagnetism. 

The Saucer occupants were supposedly wearing dark blue plain rankless uniforms with collars, buttons, and blue caps. They reportedly looked like “perfectly normal human beings” appearing about 35 to 40 years old in Earth age. The deceased Flying Saucer crew were allegedly taken away to be dissected and concealed to avoid “public panic” or upsetting certain religious beliefs. Scully got his information from two men named Silas M. Newton and Leo A. Gebauer. In the book, Scully referred to Gebauer only as the mysterious pseudonym “Dr. Gee.” The book was a best-seller and was very popular in the Flying Saucer community and beyond.

Frank Scully, being Catholic, also reportedly stated to an interviewer[a*] that he believed that aliens or spacemen looked a lot like Earth’s human beings because the Abrahamic God had created humans on various planets “in his image.” This belief became a somewhat common talking point among the more Christian-inclined Flying Saucer fans in regards to the very human-like Flying Saucer occupant claims. Early Flying Saucer literature involving such beings, including Scully’s, tends to use terminology such as “space people” or “space men” more than “alien” and often affords full personhood to such visitors.

Frank’s Saucer book also contained an entire chapter on paranormal pioneer Charles Fort entitled “From Fort to FATE” correctly linking Forteanism to Ray Palmer’s FATE magazine and the Flying Saucer mystery beginning with Kenneth Arnold. The Flying Saucer sightings listed in the back of the book are labeled by Scully as “The Post-Fortean File 1947-1950” meaning that these are anomalies collected after Fort’s lifetime. In chapter seventeen, he also quotes Charles Fort’s famous line about measuring a circle beginning anywhere. This further demonstrates early Flying Saucer researchers historical connection to Charles Fort.

In the fifth chapter of his book entitled “The Lunar Fringe,” Scully delves directly by name into the Etherian ideas of Meade Layne’s book “The Ether Ship Mystery And Its Solution (1950)” and his “Borderland Sciences Research Association (BSRA)” as well as Theosophy, Spiritualist Mediumship, and the supposedly channeled 1882 book “Oahspe” from Ohio Dentist and Spiritualist John Newbrough (which we’ll delve deeper into at another point).

Later, in a September 1952 True magazine article “The Flying Saucers and the Mysterious Little Men” by John Philip Cahn, the Aztec story was reportedly shown to be a HOAX perpetrated against Scully by Newton and Gebauer to sell fake alien technology supposedly based on items retrieved from the crash site including a gadget for allegedly finding valuables such as oil, gold, ect. The credentials that the two men had reportedly given to Frank Scully, which Scully had published in his book, were revealed to be fake and the pair reportedly had criminal history including fraud. Newton had falsely pretended to be a successful oil magnate and geophysicist with a Yale University education, while Gebauer had falsely pretended to be a top scientist working for the U.S. Government.

The debunking of the story and the clear profit motive was reportedly widely accepted by the community at the time including among the dedicated believers in the existence of Flying Saucers, many of whom found it unfortunate but understandable that Scully could have bought into Newton and Gebauer’s hoax. While others wondered how Scully could have been so easily duped and why he continued to defend the two men afterwards.

Silas Newton had also shown San Francisco Chronicle reporter John Cahn pieces of the supposed unknown super-metal debris from the crash that Newton kept wrapped up in a handkerchief in his pocket including two gears, one of which appeared to clearly have the number nine on it, and two nickel sized disks of metal. The next time, Cahn reportedly used slight-of-hand maneuvering to covertly swap out one of the metal disks with a thinner decoy he created. When he tested the unknown metal piece, it turned out to be ordinary aluminum.

In December of 1953, the two men were reportedly convicted of fraud in Denver, Colorado for selling their “doodlebug” oil-finding devices under the “Newton Oil Company” label which an electronics expert testifying at the trial reportedly identified as “a surplus radio-transmitting tuning unit that couldn’t detect anything.” The two had falsely purported that the device worked as a dowsing tool by detecting “electromagnetic energy” produced from underground oil deposits. Newton’s claim of oil producing detectable electromagnetic energy was also repeated in the pages of chapter three of Scully’s “Behind The Flying Saucers (1950)” book as well. The two had therefore used Scully’s book and the whole Flying Saucer narrative about electromagnetism to promote a false understanding about finding oil, to cement their false credentials, and to sell their fake equipment. Silas Newton and Leo Gebauer had reportedly made over two hundred thousand dollars from the scheme.

After this, Frank Scully left the Flying Saucer scene. A follow-up article by J.P. Cahn appeared in the August 1956 issue of True magazine entitled “Flying Saucer Swindlers.” Despite the story being reportedly proven to be a hoax committed by two supposed con artists against a Flying Saucer researcher, this is still the earliest widely-publicized example of a “Flying Saucer crash” story and elements found within the story were later repeated or seemingly repurposed by others for supposed crash tales many decades following this (including most famously the Roswell myth which was only later popularized in the late 1970’s, early 1980’s, and onward). Though their last names are the same, Dana Scully from the much later 1993 hit Scifi TV show “X-Files” is not named after him but instead sportscaster Vin Scully.

George Adamski Begins:

In September of 1950, a curious man brought forth some supposed Flying Saucer photos which he had published in FATE magazine. He had been attempting to sell them elsewhere before, though some of the photos had been reportedly identified as part of a vacuum cleaner. This man’s name was George Adamski and he would play a big part in the Saucer fandom soon enough. With an interest in the Theosophy movement, in the 1930’s, Adamski founded and led a spiritual group titled “The Royal Order of Tibet” in Laguna Beach, California. There he was able to make wine during prohibition due to religious exemption. 

Afterwards, in the 1940’s, he and his group moved to Mount Palomar, California near the Hale Observatory. Despite common misconception, he did not work at the observatory and wasn’t associated with it. Readers making the mistake of thinking he was connected to the observatory reportedly benefitted Adamski whether it was intentional or not. In 1949, he began giving paid lectures about spaceships. Adamski had also submitted a Science Fiction story to Ray Palmer’s Amazing Stories pulp magazine about Jesus Christ in a Flying Saucer which was rejected from the magazine.

In Frank Scully’s 1950 book “Behind The Flying Saucers,” George Adamski was mentioned by name in chapters ten and fifteen. He was referred to in the text as “Professor George Adamski” who was reportedly researching the Flying Saucer mystery, but Adamski wasn’t an actual professor, George just used “professor” as his nickname of sorts among his followers. Adamski then became an associate and friend of Frank Scully through their mutual interest in Flying Saucers, with Adamski also reportedly embracing and promoting the Aztec Crash Hoax (published by Scully) as legitimate.

II. Interlude (1800’s Influences):

A Quick Word on Spiritualism, Theosophy, and Oahspe:

In this history book, we have discussed Charles Fort and the early Forteans as well as Ray Palmer and the early Science Fiction fans. Both of those groups and their intermingling were very influential and integral to the Flying Saucer community. The other influence which we have not delved into very deeply is the influence of occultism or more specifically Spiritualism and its offspring such as Theosophy. Though it momentarily breaks with chronology, for future reference and better understanding, before moving onto 1951, I will give a brief summary of that equally important influence here or at least the more relevant or interesting aspects.

Spiritualism (1840s):

In 1848, three young girls in upstate New York known as The Fox Sisters, Leah Fox, Margaretta “Maggie” Fox and Catherine “Kate” Fox, claimed to have been in communication via knocking noises or rapping with ghosts or spirits of the dead haunting their house from within its walls. Margaretta later reportedly revealed their claims to be a publicity stunt in 1888 but then recanted that statement in 1989. Regardless, their claims inspired countless “Spiritualists” to attempt to contact spirits and be the “Medium” between the living and the dead. These various Spiritualists later gave birth to the notion of “psychics” along with the many séance practices. Spiritualism was also a religious movement and several Spiritualist Churches were established.

The Spiritualist movement was also heavily inspired by the theological notions of Christian Restorationist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772) as well as the techniques of the inventor of “Mesmerism” or “Hypnotism,” German physician Franz Mesmer (1734 – 1815), and his ideas of “animal magnetism” within the human body. Franz Mesmer’s techniques inspired the Spiritualist ideas of trance-states for the purpose of communication with spirits of the deceased which came to be called “Trance-Mediumship.”

Andrew Jackson Davis (1826 – 1910) was another big proponent of Spiritualism who wrote influential books which synthesized the works of Swedenborg and Mesmer. Many Spiritualists were also Slavery Abolitionists and Women’s Rights Advocates. Many also abstained from drinking or were part of the “Temperance” movement against alcohol. In early 1860, after the death of her son, Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln held séances in the White House. Many Spiritualist séances in this period attempted to communicate with those who died in the American Civil War.

The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded in January of 1882, at a Spiritualism gathering, by journalist Edmund Rogers, physicist William F. Barrett, poet Frederic W. H. Myers, psychologist Edmund Gurney, Spiritualist Hensleigh Wedgwood, Spiritualist Stainton Moses, and Spiritualist Mystic Charles Massey. The group set out to systematically and intellectually investigate claims of psychic ability also called “psychical research” as well as debunk fake Spiritualist Mediums. The driving force behind much psychical research was reportedly an attempt to apply empirical and scientific study to the claims of Spiritualism. In 1882, founding member Frederic W. H. Myers coined the useful term “telepathy” to describe mental messaging or thought-transference. 

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859 – 1930), author of Sherlock Holmes, and a collector of Ghost and Faerie stories, became a Spiritualist in 1887.

Hereward Carrington (1880 – 1958) was a British-born American researcher of psychic phenomena, a stage illusionist, and a Mediumship-Skeptic who reportedly joined the American Society For Psychical Research (ASPR) in 1907. Harry Price (1881 – 1948) was a British psychic researcher, a Mediumship-Skeptic and a paranormal investigator who reportedly joined the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1920.

In the 1920’s, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle took his friend, the well known Hungarian-American stage illusionist and escape artist, Harry Houdini (1874 – 1926), to see Arthur’s wife Jean Doyle who was a Spiritualist Medium. Jean claimed to speak to Houdini’s recently deceased Jewish mother in a séance but reportedly drew a Christian cross via automatic writing while in a trance. Houdini then decided to dedicate much of his time to debunking Spiritualist and Medium claims and exposing reported frauds which he found to be harmful and exploitative of grieving people. Houdini was reportedly able to see through many supposed tricks because of his background as a stage magician or illusionist. This later ended his friendship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Houdini became a very influential and harsh Mediumship-Skeptic who spent his career revealing how various tricks were done in books and articles (including the 1920 book “Miracle Mongers and Their Methods” and the 1924 book “A Magician Among the Spirits”), as well as using their techniques and methods for entertainment in his on-stage illusions, which influenced stage magicians for generations. Houdini’s skepticism also inspired generations of Mediumship-Skeptics and debunkers to expose alleged hoaxers and fake Mediums within the field of Spiritualism.

Harry told his wife, Bess Houdini, that if he found a way to communicate beyond death he would tell her the phrase “Rosabelle believe” based on their favorite song Rosabelle. A phrase which others would be unlikely to guess. Every year for ten years after his death (on October 31st 1926), Bess held a séance on Halloween to try to reach him but reportedly never did. The tradition of trying to talk to Houdini on Halloween via séance was reportedly continued on by others with various further attempts.

Spiritualists labeled “Physical Mediums” claimed to be able to produce spiritual materializations during séances including spirit appearances or apparitions, unexplained knocking, rapping, or other sounds, objects inexplicably appearing (called “apports“), or a slimy substance called “ectoplasm” supposedly being produced via the group’s animal magnetism. As Medium-Skeptics continued to expose or discredit reported hoaxers these techniques fell gradually out of style. Mediumship moved more and more away from Physical Mediumship and instead towards “Mental Mediumship” including messages via trance-states and psychic phenomena of the mind. It would seem that many aspects of Spiritualism eventually gave way to, or was overtaken by, what became the field of psychic research. The field of “psychical research” then evolved increasingly over time towards the academic study of the human mind and psychic or clairvoyant ability to communicate mentally or to obtain information from the future, past, or even the present, that would be otherwise unknowable.

NY-born Louisa Ella Rhine (1891 – 1983) and PA-born Joseph Banks “J.B.” Rhine (1895 – 1980) were both American botanists who taught at West Virginia University in Morgantown before becoming interested in psychology and psychic phenomena. They attempted to take a scholarly and academic approach to the field of psychical research which they instead called “Parapsychology.” Louisa and her husband JB Rhine later relocated to North Carolina where JB reportedly helped her to establish the first ever “Parapsychology Lab” at Duke University in 1927. They are also credited with popularizing the term “Extra-sensory Perception (ESP)” in the 1930’s to describe supposed psychic abilities such as precognition, retrocognition, hypnotic influence, Mediumship, telekinesis, and telepathy.

Charles Fort (1874 – 1932), the famed collector of anomalous phenomena and satirist, as previously mentioned, was outspokenly critical of Spiritualist claims of communication with the dead. He proposed instead that these ghostly experiences were perhaps the product of unconscious mental abilities or talents. Fort’s last book “Wild Talents (1932)” was focused mainly on anomalous reports of psychic or supposedly unexplained mental phenomena or abilities. Ideas of telepathy and ESP of course also found their way into tales of Science Fiction (Scifi) and eventually influenced the Flying Saucer community and other Fortean areas as well.

Theosophy (1875):

On November 17th 1875, a Russian-born Spiritualist Medium by the name of Helena Blavatsky (1831 – 1891) founded the religious movement of “Theosophy” in New York which derives its name essentially meaning “divine wisdom” from the Greek words “Theo” meaning divine and “Sophia” meaning wisdom. Blavatsky had been a Spiritualist since the early 1870’s before eventually splitting to create her own religious offshoot and attempting to distance herself from Spiritualism while still using many of its techniques and concepts. The motto of Theosophy was “There is no religion higher than truth” which reflected Blavatsky’s supposed perennialist view that within every religion there is an overall essential truth to be found.

She heavily exaggerated her life stories and her travels to the east, claiming to have gone to locations which she hadn’t been to and to have obtained special secret mystical wisdom. She essentially watered down and appropriated eastern spirituality such as Hinduism and Buddhism and marketed the material to westerners. Blavatsky helped to bring simplified notions of “karma” and “reincarnation” to the west and paved the way for popular westernized Yoga and the western Gurus of the later 1960’s Hippie movement. Theosophy was massively influential to later occultism and esoteric movements.

Instead of using Spiritualism and Trance-Mediumship practices to communicate with ghosts of the dead, Helena Blavatsky instead claimed to be in contact with “Mahatmas” or “Masters of the Hidden Brotherhood.” She claimed to have met these spiritual adepts as humans in Tibet (of which there is no evidence she actually traveled to) but later channeled them through her mediumship. She claimed that these supposed wise teachers were enlightened or ascended spiritual beings who were previously human but have since transformed into powerful entities who aid mankind with wisdom and guidance. Theosophists throughout time, including Blavatsky, claimed that various interesting teachers and religious figures from throughout history were actually enlightened “Masters,” including Jesus Christ, Mother Mary, The Buddhas, Confucius, Mesmer, ect.

Helena claimed to have encountered them when she reportedly discovered “the lost city of Shambhala” in the Gobi Desert where she encountered this “Hidden Brotherhood” including Masters Jesus and Buddha, as well as Blavatsky’s personal spiritual guides which were supposedly two Indian men named “Koot Hoomi” and “Master Morya,” she purported that they lived in a tunnel-filled subterranean city underneath Tibet, all of whom were led by the mysterious “Lord of The World” which she claimed had descended from the planet Venus. 

Helena Blavatsky also introduced the idea of the “Akashic records” which were purported to be the non-physical spiritual recordings of all events occurring on Earth which supposedly exist in another spiritual or mental plane of existence which could reportedly be accessed by Mediums like Blavatsky. She refers to these purportedly indestructible records as being “astral-light” tablets. Akasha is reportedly a Sanskrit word for “sky” or “atmosphere.”

In addition to Spiritualism and eastern mysticism, Helena took great inspiration from the early Science Fiction (Scifi) novel “The Coming Race (1871)” by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. She purportedly believed the book to contain true elements and directly references it in her books. The story tells of a man who accidentally discovers a technologically-advanced subterranean Utopian world populated by a winged race of human-like beings called “Vril-ya” who survived the biblical flood by retreating underground. The Vril-ya in the novel have healing powers, the hypnotic ability to mesmerize others or put them to sleep, and the ability to transmit information via the mind (later termed telepathy). Their technology and abilities in the story are powered by a strange unknown energy substance called “Vril” which they can control with their minds and sometimes via staffs. The author was reportedly inspired by Spiritualism and Mesmerism including the notions of Animal Magnetism.

The explorer learns various things about the beings and their culture before mistakenly angering them by falling in love with a Vril-ya woman named “Princess Zee” and making his hurried exit. He concludes ominously that the Vril-ya will one day run out of room beneath the Earth and reclaim control of the surface world. Thus, they are the titular “coming race.” The book was very popular upon release and, on March 5th-10th 1891, what was reportedly the first Science Fiction (Scifi) convention ever, called the “Vril-Ya Bazaar,” was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. The Victorian Era attendants dressed up as Vril-Ya, including wearing costume wings reminiscent of European artistic depictions of angels, as the book described. The youngest daughter of Queen Victoria of England, Princess Beatrice, was reportedly in attendance. (It should go without saying that there are some obvious similarities between this fictional story and Blavatsky supposed underground meeting with the hidden “Masters,” as well as the much later stories of supposed contact with Flying Saucer occupants though they typically are claimed to have come from a world above rather than a world below. It is also noteworthy that this is another example of the theme of Scifi melding with supposed truth or of the interplay between esoteric or paranormal claims and Science Fiction.)

Helena Blavatsky also used allegedly lost civilizations such as Lemuria and Atlantis in her writings which helped popularize the concept. “Lemuria” was a hypothetical continent that sank into the Pacific ocean. The idea was proposed by 19th century scientist Phillip Sclater in the 1864 article “Mammals of Madagascar” to explain why lemur fossils were found in India and Madagascar but not in Africa. The theory was later debunked as total nonsense but the theorized lemur-filled landmass then became the subject of myth. The fictional Atlantis was invented by Plato as a hypothetical example in the text when making an argument about human civilization before it was erroneously taken as a literal place by later readers.

She also reportedly held very anti-Semitic and racist views about what she called “Root Races,” expressed in her book “The Secret Doctrine (1888),” claiming that all the various groups of humanity and civilization ultimately stemmed from an earlier magical superior human race which lived in Atlantis before later being genetically and culturally diffused, disseminated, or watered-down, among the different races to different degrees. She reportedly foretold that a new superior or perfected human race would soon be born. (This idea would later infamously influence the occultist views of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s, long after her death.)

Theosophy’s views on Atlanteans greatly influenced Science Fiction and Fantasy Fiction stories as well. Atlantis became a favorite story location within pulp media of those genres, often incorporating elements from Blavatsky. For example, the popular best-selling Fantasy stories of Robert E. Howard, including the “Conan The Barbarian (1932)” pulp novel series, was partly inspired by Theosophy and its views on “Root Races” and Atlantis. Robert Howard is credited with pioneering the “Sword and Sorcery” genre which has produced countless books by a variety of authors.

Ray Palmer of Amazing Stories (and later FATE magazine) used Lemuria as a concept in The Shaver Mystery and named the first story “I Remember Lemuria (March 1945).” Scifi editor Ray Palmer began studying Spiritualism and Theosophy after first encountering the unique writing submitted by the reportedly schizophrenic Richard Shaver, which included some Atlantis mythology among his creative and fascinating subterranean worldview of Deros (detrimental robots).

Blavatsky published several books explaining her mystical and esoteric views and theories including “Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology (1877)” and “The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy (1888).” Theosophy ultimately spawned the very influential “New Age” movement around the 1960’s which assumed many Theosophist teachings and awaits a purportedly coming Utopian golden age of humanity called “The Age of Aquarius” which is a somewhat similar notion to Christian Millennialism concepts around the purportedly coming Kingdom of God and Christ’s return. 

Oahspe (1882):

In 1882, a Spiritualist and Dentist from Ohio who later moved to Manhattan, New York named John Ballou Newbrough (1828–1891) published a book which he claimed to have received through the common séance practice of “automatic writing” beginning in 1880. This process would usually be done by Mediums resting a pencil in their hand and supposedly allowing the spirits to take control of them to write a message without the Medium knowing what they are writing. Another method is by using a sliding piece of wood called a “planchette” famously also used with Talking Boards or Ouija Boards. This process can be scientifically explained by the ideomotor effect which means that unconscious micromovements of the hand of the participants can produce such messages. Of course outright fraud or trickery is also given as an explanation for certain automatic writing techniques beyond that.

John Newbrough, however, was not using a pencil or a planchette, he instead claimed that the book was automatically written on the newly-invented typewriter. According to Newbrough, who had been a Spiritualist since the early 1870s, in the early hours of the morning he would sit with his hands on his typewriter until a glowing light would envelop his fingers, take control of his hands, and type out the supposedly angel inspired 870-paged manuscript which was titled “Oahspe: A New Bible” and took two years to complete. The bizarre book has since become a Public Domain work.

Newbrough claimed that the word “Oahspe” meant “sky, earth, and spirit” and that it was reminiscent of the sound of the wind blowing through leaves on a tree. The Oahspe logo found in publications also contains a leaf.

The book, written in a pseudo-King-James style, describes in very complex and hard-to-follow detail how all human beings (and mortals on other planets) after death become spirits and travel through various processes or layers of the lower “Atmospherean” Heavens and upper infinite “Etherean” Heavens or the great firmament in which they can evolve through spiritual growth, wisdom, and experience to become angels of varying power. This includes ultimately the rank of “God,” “Goddess” “Chief” or “Lord” which are purportedly temporary cycling office titles held by the advanced high-ranking formerly-mortal angels or “Etherean” beings who supposedly exist in the heavens for thousands of years after death ascending upward in rank and stature. The book makes mention of several “Gods of Heaven” including the Egyptian “Anubis,” the Greek/Roman “Apollo,” the Norse “Thor” and the Hindu “Brahma.”

“The Creator,” on the other hand, is purportedly an all-encompassing ever-present entity referred to by various names including “The Great Spirit,” “The Highest Light,” and the Hebrew-inspired “Jehovih” or “Eloih.” Those who have faith in “The Creator” are called “Faithists” in the text. Oahspe could therefore be seen as a henotheistic text with a grand Creator deity and then many lesser human-deities in spirit form within the heavens. The comparison could also be made to the enlightened human “Masters” of Theosophy. The text, much like Theosophy, also seems to be trying to meld a variety of religions or influences together in a pseudo-perennialist or pseudo-pluralist manner by appropriating polytheistic gods to be former-mortals under the control of “The Creator.” The text also speaks favorably about the Freemason fraternity and their perennialist view of “The Great Architect.”

According to Oahspe, the angelic beings within the Etherean Heavens supposedly require vessels or “Etherean Ships” to travel the vast distances of the infinite space at incredible speeds. These fast flying vessels come in a variety of shapes and sizes and have many different names including “arrow-ships,” “fire-ships,” “fire-boats,” “fire-arrows,” “globes of light,” “star-ships,” “sun-ships,” and “airavagna.” Some smaller ships reportedly held a single angel or a few passengers while other very large ships, supposedly the size of a continent, could contain millions of souls.

The afterlife-focused book Oahspe also contains what is reported to be the first ever use of the term “star-ship” in literature, a term which of course would go on to be commonly used in 20th century Science Fiction and beyond including very famously on Star Trek (1966). Since the book is purportedly auto-written, one must wonder who could get the credit for coining the term star-ship, if it would be John Newbrough or whatever supposed spirits or angels inspired him to write.

Within the infinite Etherean Heavens, which is essentially another plane of existence or dimension, there are also supposedly “Etheran Worlds” which are like planets inhabited both on the surface and within by high-ranking angels (referred to as humanities “older brothers and sisters”) with a vortex creating a form of gravity and weight. The interior of the planet are accessed through passageways connecting multiple layers with great complexity. The planets or worlds are supposedly close enough to one another that they can see the other worlds in view.

Oahspe states that the souls of the dead experience three spiritual “resurrections.” Firstly, becoming a spirit in the spirit world after death but still being self-interested, self-serving, and able to interact with humans or affect the physical world including even spiritual possession. Secondly, becoming an angel occupying the higher Atmospherean Heavens who is more wise, less self-serving, and looking to help others including on the Earth below. Thirdly, transcending all earthly interests, attachments, and motivations while affirming faith in “The Creator” to join the even higher Etherean Heavens which can no longer interact with the Earth (which according to Oahspe was originally named “Pan.”) From within the infinite Etherean Heavens, of which “Nirvana” is near the highest realms of, they can supposedly be appointed by “The Creator” to become Gods, Chiefs, Goddesses, ect.

The book describes “swift messengers” who are purportedly highly skilled and trained Etherean pilots that fly around in “globes of light” which are able to hold several passengers and very quickly traveled vast distances going between the Etherean and atmospherean heavens to send messages. The swift messengers are purportedly able to memorize and retain lengthy messages verbatim to convey to others. Oahspe describes angel wars in the heavens featuring self-centered “false gods” acting without the approval of The Creator and attempting to assume authority over territory or falsely claiming to be “The Creator” or to be acting on The Creator’s behalf. The “true gods” however are said to have been appointed or employed by The Creator. 

Oahspe also endorses principles such as Veganism, Pacifism, service to mankind, communal living, and contains various very ahistorical or ascientific claims, and failed prophecies. It also foretells a purportedly coming golden age of peaceful spiritual and corporeal balance for humanity called the “Kosmon” Era or Season which is a word purporting to mean a state of balance. Oahpse claims that the Kosmon Era began thirty three years before the book was written, presumably meaning 1847. The dense and often confusing or bewildering tome also mentions various cycles of human history or civilization as well as supposedly unknown or lost tribes and races of extinct humans.

Oahspe is against the notion of reincarnation which it directly says is false. It also includes animals within the spirit world, but only human spirits can purportedly become angels. The book calls the time period in which the human race exists from beginning to extinction the “Eoptian Age.” It also claims the United States “Founding Father” and revolutionary Thomas Paine, author of “Common Sense (1776),” to be a prophet.

Oahspe lays out an elaborate and complicated lineage of humanity purporting that a race of Neanderthals called “A’su” had offspring with angels that became “I’lhins.” The book then claims that the I’hins mated with the A’su to produce a race called “Druks” who in turn then mated with the A’su to create “Yaks” and that the “I’hins” also had offspring with the Druks which were called “I’huan” and offspring with the I’huan which were called “Ghans.” It disturbingly describes the offspring of the I’huans and the Druks using the offensive and derogatory term “mongrels.” Oahpse concludes that all life on Earth therefore descends from the I’huan or the Ghans. It describes the I’huan as “copper” in coloration, claims them to be the origin of the Native Americans, and claims the Ghans to be the origin of the Europeans.

The lengthy book also shamefully repeats notions of the then-common racist American concept of the “Mound Builder Myth” which falsely states that the Native Americans didn’t build the famously known burial mounds but that it was some other previous race, sometimes a previous and supposedly more advanced white race instead. Not only is this a very ahistorical and racist claim but it also has dangerous implications and has been used detrimentally against the rights of Native people to justify horrible cruelty towards them or to erase their history. The “Indian Removal Act of 1830” carried out by U.S. President Andrew Jackson cited the commonly held notion of the Mound Builder Myth as a transparently self-serving justification for westward expansion and Native American displacement, falsely claiming that they were not the original inhabitants and therefore had no legitimate claim to the land. Even DNA testing has since proven that the Native Americans were the actual descendants of the original mound builders. The book Oahspe falsely and rather tellingly claims that the Mound Builders were actually also “faithists” with faith in The Great Spirit aka The Creator. Though this notion within Oahspe might go unnoticed in a very large difficult-to-grasp book otherwise focused on pretty esoteric notions of spirits ascending through heavens and the like, the horrible implications of this idea cannot be ignored, and it certainly casts much doubt on the claim that the work was inspired by angels or spirits rather than a mind of the 1880’s, a time in which such a myth would have proliferated.

Side Note: This racist myth is also found in the “Book of Mormon” supposedly obtained by Joseph Smith in 1830 with the help of a previously-human angel named “Moroni.” Notice the similarity in the view of angels as former-humans instead of created beings, as well as an angel being involved in the book’s creation. Mormonism, which began in upstate New York much like the Spiritualists, also has a space theology and various levels to heaven called “degrees of glory” (derived from a supposed vision from Smith in 1832) ranging upward from Telestial, Terrestrial, and Celestial with humans having the ability to be exalted to become gods after death. Secular scholars have indicated the Book of Mormon to be written by a single contemporary author in English and not spiritually translated from buried golden plates written by various authors in “Reformed Egyptian” as claimed. Many historical claims made by Joseph Smith have of course been thoroughly debunked, as well as the book’s absurd false claim of a Jewish origin to the Native Americans.

(Cont’d …) Faithist Colonies (1882-1906) and further influence:

After Oahspe’s publications, various Faithist groups, lodges, or colonies were created, inspired by the book’s message and its promotion of peaceful and vegetarian communal living. The first colony was established by John Newbrough himself in 1882 at Woodside Township, New Jersey but after five months it was relocated to rural Pearl River, New York. The members lived at the colony, held to a strict vegetarian diet, and tried to live out the “Faithist” way of life. Newbrough reportedly raised money by charging for membership to the colony and collected funds from volunteers. He also had a donor named Andrew Howland who further financed this elaborate undertaking. This was the birth of a New Religious Movement (NRM).

In 1883, groups of Faithists began attending religious services at the Utah Hall in New York City.

Newbrough and the Faithists, believing in a forthcoming Utopian golden age, thought that the children were the spiritual future of mankind. Thus they adopted many orphaned children of various races from orphanages across the United states to raise them under Faithist principles and established a new colony called “The Shalam Colony” or the “Land of Shalam” in 1884 in Lac Cruces, New Mexico at the banks of the Rio Grande river. John Newbrough later died on April 22nd 1891 due to a severe influenza epidemic. After Newbrough’s death, the colony financer Andrew Howland took control of the New Mexico property and later married Newbrough’s former wife Francis. Another colony was then also founded nearby which was called “Levitica” which offered a place for even non-Faithist to live. The colonies continued until eventually running out of funds in 1901, partly due to repeated crop-failure and frequent river flooding. At which point, the operations closed, the members left, and the children were reportedly sent to orphanages in Dallas, Texas and Denver, Colorado.

Later, in 1906, at a different colony set up by other Faithists in Colorado, a dozen children reportedly died from malnutrition. On November 4th 1906, The Pittsburgh Press printed a newspaper article on the tragic incident entitled “Twelve Mysterious Deaths Reveal Weird Religious Sect.” 

With the death of the Oahspe book’s supposed revelator, John Newbrough, and the failure of several Faithist colonies, the religious movement waned and fell into further obscurity. Eventually, the book Oahspe became something of a strange curiosity among Spiritualists and those interested in supposed automatic writing as well as those more generally interested in strange or fringe spirituality and even anomalous phenomena. Though many came to regard the book as an amusing anomaly, the book continued to attract the occasional Faithist convert, as well as becoming a useful pre-assembled work to be adopted or incorporated into a mixture of spiritual views by those attempting to create new religious movements or separate themselves from what is deemed more mainstream religion.

In 1945, Ray Palmer’s Amazing Stories first published about the strange purportedly true concept of The Shaver Mystery. Soon after, a man named Earl Wing Anderson who was a dedicated Faithist as well as a member of The Fortean Society, introduced Scifi editor Ray Palmer to the book Oahspe. E. Wing Anderson often promoted the book to fellow researchers and even published and sold his own reprinted 1945 edition of Oahspe. Within the text, Palmer believed was somehow confirmation of The Shaver Mystery claims, despite Richard Shaver himself not being very interested in the book. Ray Palmer became an outspoken proponent of Oahspe and would recommend it to people. He was reportedly greatly inspired by the supposed spiritual moral lessons he found in the book, including communal living and pacifism. 

The Fortean Meade Layne, in the November 1946 issue of Round Robin, featured an article written by Layne about Wing Anderson’s Oahspe edition, which Meade was given by Anderson as a review copy. In the article, Meade Layne describes how he can’t really review the ever-mystifying book Oahspe because he doesn’t truly understand the confusing spiritual text or its illustrations. He speaks favorably about the large confusing tome but is certainly not a Faithist (or die-hard supporter like Palmer and Anderson). He seems, despite being intrigued by the book supposed mysterious auto-written origins, unable to grasp the meaning of the rather esoteric text enough to agree or disagree with anything presented. He also employs a healthy dose of classic Fortean agnosticism which prevents him from making a judgement one way or another on the book beyond an odd curiosity.

Layne writes: “We speak of the magnificence of Oahspe, and in the same breath say that many think it is the world’s dullest book. You have to have an Oahspe type of mind to do anything with it. We have run on and on about it, because it is one of those phenomena of human expression which no glib psychologist has ever yet said anything intelligible about. We don’t ‘believe’ it or disbelieve it; we contemplate it as one would a hippogriff, leviathan, or dragon. It’s simply there, and we don’t know any answers to Why, What, or How – and so have taken a near two pages to make proof of our ignorance.”

When Palmer started “FATE magazine” in the spring of 1948 to focus on anomalous phenomena, he used the publication to heavily promote and advertise Oahspe. Wing Anderson also reportedly convinced the very skeptical and non-Faithist Fortean Tiffany Thayer to sell Anderson’s edition of the book through The Fortean Society in the late 1940s. Because of Palmer’s constant promotion of Oahspe, Scifi and Fortean readers of FATE magazine, and his other publications throughout the 1940’s and 50’s, were all at least aware of the book Oahspe whether they found it compelling or not. Palmer would continue his fascination with the text throughout his life.

Chapter six of Meade Layne’s Flying Saucer book “The Ether Ship Mystery and Its Solution (1950)” quotes E. Wing Anderson detailing the mentions of flying ships or “star-ships” in Oahspe. Layne of course also uses the term “Etherians” (spelled differently than Oahspe’s “Ethereans”) to describe the wise technologically advanced beings from The Ether, but it’s unknown if this was inspired by the book Oahspe which Layne found bewildering. The idea of an “Ether” is not original to Oahpse, though both texts do share deep fascination with the idea of an etheric world beyond ours with multiple layers or levels and beings with fast-moving ships for travel. Frank Scully’s popular early Flying Saucer book “Behind The Flying Saucers (1950)” in chapter five also mentions Oahspe along with Theosophy and Meade Layne’s Etherians.

Meade Layne’s worldview of Earth-visiting Etherians seems to align somewhat with Theosophy’s notion of wise human-guiding enlightened “Masters” as well as Oahspe’s notion of spirits or angels living in the unseen heavens above the upper atmosphere, though the rest of those religious movements would no doubt contradict Layne or contradict each other. Despite their similarities, Meade Layne’s worldview seems unique enough to be its own thing, separate from either Theosophy or Oahspe. For instance, unlike those worldviews, Meade Layne’s Etherians were never previously human.

Alright. With all that somewhat important pre-history and context in mind, we now return you to your regularly scheduled tales of Saucerdom.