One of the most influential books in UFO history is
Flying Saucers Have Landed by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski. Published in
1953, it has been referred to as ”the book that was dynamite”. And the dynamite
was George Adamski´s report of meeting a spaceman in the California desert on
November 20, 1952 and a return visit of the craft December 13. In support of
these encounters were several photos and affidavits from six witnesses. Since
the 1950s there has been an endless pro-and-con debate regarding the veracity
of this first contact claim and the close-up photos taken by Adamski.
One of the researchers convinced of the authenticity
of George Adamski´s 1952 contact is Michel Zirger, born in France but since
twenty-four years living in Japan. In two former books The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson (co-authored with Maurizio Martinelli), 2016, and ”We Are Here!” Visitors Without A Passport, 2017 the author have presented much new data on Adamski and Williamson. Now we have Zirger´s third book,
Authenticating the George Adamski Case. The Desert Center Investigation. A companion to the book "We Are Here!", 150 pages with more than 70 photos and illustrations, nearly all in color. This
is a detailed and extensive study of the empirical evidence indicating that, as
the late French ufologist Franck Boitte wrote: ”… there is in the George
Adamski saga much more than meets the eye”. Zirger´s book, in a very concrete
way, show that this is an actual fact revealed by a digital enhancement and
analysis of the Adamski photographs.
George Adamski was, and still is, regarded as a
very controversial figure in the UFO community, but his first contact with the
spaceman in the California desert is really unusually well documented compared
to many other contactee claims. This is one of the reasons why Michel Zirger
argues for a second look at this historical event: ”This case of contact of
November 20, 1952 – the first case of contact with an entity of human
appearance – deserved to be at least reassessed in a dispassionate way. This is
what I have humbly tried to do in this book, gathering together the factual
elements of information already known since the release of Flying Saucer Have Landed
and those I excavated through my research.”
In the first two chapters Michel Zirger presents
biographical data of his background and life in France. A passion for books included
everything ”from Mallarmé to Adamski”. When the UFO interest began he devoured
all the aviable literature in French. The book that made the greatest impact
was the French edition of Flying Saucers Have Landed: ”A Magical reading
experience I have never gotten tired of. Even today, I still consult this old
red and gold Jái Lu edition”. Here I
find a kindred spirit. Of all the UFO books I´ve read during my life this
classic remains the all time favourite. Desmond Leslie´s pioneering study of
UFO phenomena, including George Adamski, in the light of the Esoteric Tradition
is a path I have followed in my own, somewhat heretical, research and writings.
Michel Zirger
Except literature there were two other decisive
factors in the life of Michel Zirger that finally led to the writing of his
books on George Hunt Williamson and George Adamski. As a young boy of thirteen
his mother revealed to him that she had, in July 1964, observed a classic
flying saucer with a cupola and strongly lit windows, that stopped hovering
very close to her, around 45 meters. Of even greater significance was Zirger´s
three observations and telepathic contact with ”aliens” in public places not
far from central Tokyo. There were witnesses to these encounters, which he
described in ”We Are Here!”.
In the remaining sixteen chapters Zirger presents a
detailed analysis and documentation of what happened on November 20 and
December 13, 1952: witnesses, photographs, original newspaper articles and
later comments by Adamski, Williamson and other participants during the early
years of the 1950s. A major breakthrough in Zirger´s research was when he
became acquainted with Danish photographer and painter Rene Erik Olsen. In 2017
Olsen made digital enhancements of some of the Adamski photographs and
discovered amazing details that even Adamski himself was obviously not aware
of, showing the large cigar-shaped spacecraft and what appears to be the
spaceman himself. Olsen has also published his findings in The George AdamskiStory – Historic Events of Gigantic Implications. If Glenn Steckling, director
of the Adamski Foundation, will allow a similar digital enhancement and
analysis of at least one of the original negatives and the Olsen findings can
be confirmed it could implicate a major revolution in UFO research and a
renewed interest in the early 1950s contactees.
In spite of the extensive study made by Michel
Zirger there are a few details or mysteries not addressed in the book. When the
group had stopped in the desert and observed the cigar-shaped craft, why did
Adamski insist on leaving the group and walk alone to a spot around 500 meters
from the others? For a group deciding for skywatching in the desert it would be
more reasonable to stick together in one place. Could Adamski somehow
(telepathically) been informed that a physical contact was planned without
mentioning this to his friends?
In letters to Emma Martinelli, written before the 1952
contact, Adamski reveal some very interesting facts regarding his first
"science fiction" book Pioneers of Space, published in 1949.
"... speaking of visitors from other planets, you see, in the physical I
have not contacted any of them, but since you have read Pioneers of Space you
can see how I get my information about these people and their homelands."
(January 16, 1952). In an earlier letter he wrote: "In this letter I have
explained, using illustrations, how one may venture from one place to another,
while his physical is one place and he is in another. That is the way I have
written this book. I actually have gone to the places I speak of; I actually
have talked to the ones I speak of. To you I can reveal this since your letter
reveals much, while to others I keep silent about this." (August 16,
1950).
George Adamski
Another very intersting aspect of the 1952 contact
not further elaborated in this volume by Zirger are the many low-flying
aircraft observed during Adamski´s meeting with the spaceman. He does mention
though that ”a strategic bomber and two jets of the U.S. Air Force allegedly
over-flew the zone of contact several times during the events” and that George
Hunt Williamson later asserted that ”the Air Force did observe the landing from
above and took pictures of it.” (p. 59). In his former book ”We Are Here!” (p.
250) Zirger documented a statement by George Adamski during a lecture at Caxton
Hall, London on April 28, 1959. About one month after the desert contact a
captain in the U.S. Air Force visited Palomar Gardens asking for pictures of
the footprints and the plate with the famous writing from another planet,
received by Adamski on December 13, 1952. When the Air Force captain returned
he had made 10 x 12 enlargements for Adamski. But he also left his business
card with the message ”Did you focus your telescope on me?”, implying that he
was one of the pilots who had watched the contact from his plane. Adamski
always kept this business card i his wallet.
There is a confirmation of this claim made by
contactee George Van Tassel in his publication Proceedings: ”I was personally
informed by an officer in Air Force Intelligence that George Adamski´s contact
was filmed by Air Force personnel aboard one of the airplanes orbiting over the
craft Adamski made contact with”. (Proceedings, vol. 5, no. 1, October 1956, p.
13) These statements, if true, would of course have tremendous implications.
Some intelligence group within the U.S. have photographic evidence that the
Adamski contact was authentic. This could be the key to understanding why he had
a passport with special privileges (U.S. Government Ordnance Department Card) and
later was invited to the Pope, Queen Juliana of Holland and perhaps also other
political and military leaders, who had been informed that Adamski was a sort
of go-between or courier for a group of alien visitors. ”My heart is a
graveyard of secrets”, he once told his Swiss co-worker Lou Zinsstag.
Lou Zinsstag and George Adamski
