Through the Curtain

Dr. Shafica Karagulla (1914-1986) was a well known psychiatrist and medical doctor  with a vast research background in many countries.  Early in her professional career  she had made an in depth study of hallucinations reported by patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. In the introduction to the remarkable book Through the Curtain she writes that ”the research had led me to believe that all of man´s experiences were limited to the physical brain and the five senses”.  Karagulla had since 1930 been a close friend of Viola Petitt Neal, poet, writer and student of the Esoteric Tradition. Neal had obtained a doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from London University writing a thesis on the secret religions of the Middle East.

In 1956 Viola Petitt Neal challenged the skeptical Shafica Karagulla to read books by Helena P. Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and Edgar Cayce. ”But how was one to classify such experiences, for they were not included in my training?”, comments Karagulla. Neal further revealed to her friend that she had for many years been in contact with one of the adepts (Masters) or Planetary Guardians (Spiritual Hierachy) of our planet. Neal regularly attended what she called Night Classes by various adepts.
Karagulla is stunned by this confidential disclosure and as a researcher of the human mind ask for some verification of Neal´s experiences. As a test Karagulla is allowed to question Neal during sleep when she is attending night classes and also to tape record the sessions: ”The following morning I would try to see if she could recall the class which I had taped the night before. To my utter amazement she was able to recall the lecture which she had attended while asleep, almost verbatim, as the tape confirmed.” This research and documentation  went on secretly for twenty years and the result was published in Through the Curtain, published in 1983. After the death of Viola Petitt Neal in 1981 Shafica Karagulla was permitted to reveal the secret life of her friend. A Swedish edition of Through the Curtain, Nattlektioner, was published in 1992 by esotericist Lars Adelskogh.

Information on night classes was given by the Tibetan adept D.K. in the first volume published by Alice Bailey, Initiation Human and Solar (1922): ”Classes are held by initiates of the first and second degrees for accepted disciples and those on probation, between the hours of ten and five every night in all parts of the world… They gather in the Hall of Learning and the method is much the same as in the big Universities, - classes at certain hours, experimental work, examinations, and a gradual moving up and onward as the tests are passed.” (64-65) ”Disciples are taught in groups in the Masters´s ashram, or classroom, at night, if in incarnation.” (p. 69)

The night classes published in Through the Curtain were recorded between 1960-1980. The lessons cover a wide range of subjects but are divided into ten main headings such as extrasensory perception, science, education in the future, crystals, planetary types. The teaching presented is generally in accordance with information published by Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency. But there is some new and controversial data on extraterrestrial visitors that I have not found in other esoteric sources.

On May 11, 1962 Viola Petitt Neal is informed in a night class that ”Very definitely, there are space people who come and go on your planet.  Some of these are very constructive, as those from Mars and Venus. Some are destructive.” (p. 280) In several chapters details are given about a group of evil and destructive space people originating from Pluto: ”During the fifth sub-race (Atlantis-HB), Plutonians came en masse and invaded the planet earth… (p. 235) The Plutonian invasion was both by a type of spaceship and by simply incarnating in this human life wave on the planet… (p. 242) ”The Planet Pluto, the invader planet, eighth sphere, within our solar system, constitutes an integrated and hard core of evil… (p. 231) ”Plutonians came to the planet earth to invade and exploit and take over.” (p.233).

To my knowledge this detailed information about Pluto and Plutonians has never been mentioned in any of the classic books on esotericism. The Tibetan D.K. only says that ”The destructive power of the first ray, focussed in Pluto, brings change, darkness and death.” (Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, p. 187). In UFO contactee literature we find a few references to Pluto. In My Contact With Flying Saucers, the controversial Brazilian contactee Dino Kraspedon (Aladino Felix) is told regarding space people from Pluto that ”… they are dangerous beings, and any instances of saucers doing harm to people on Earth can be attributed to them”. (p. 191) Riley Crabb, director of Borderland Sciences Research Foundation (BSRF) 1959-1985 often in his comments on various contactee issues referred to ”the Men in Black, Plutoids from the Mafia of the Solar System”. (The Journal of Borderland Research, vol. 27, no. 3, May-June 1971 p. 5) Afficionados of the supernatural in horror fiction may also have noticed that H.P. Lovecraft in his novel The Whisperer in Darkness, published in 1931, mention non-human extraterrestrial invaders from Pluto, called Yuggoth by Lovecraft. If we accept this information the contact claims of Kelvin Rowe become dubious. As I noted in my former blog entry Rowe said one of his space contacts came from Pluto. If you are an esotericist the only way to deal with conflicting statements like these is to use discrimination and an open mind. As UFO investigator the interesting if true attitude is the best.

There is some very interesting information about Shafica Karagulla in Ingo Swann´s autobiography Remote viewing. The Real Story. An Autobiographical memoir (1996). Karagulla became sort of a spiritual mentor to Swann as described in chapter 40: ”You see, Shafia was to become one of my three major advisors regarding international affairs of the type that never get mentioned in the media, science, academe, or mentioned even by conspiracy enthusiasts… She also knew about how almost all of the world´s intelligence agencies operated – those agencies known to exist, AND those which exist but are not known or even admitted to by anyone and don´t even have names.”

Karagulla´s knowledge and advice was certainly welcome to Swann as he in 1975-1977 became involved with a secret intelligence organization described as the Axelrod incident. The story of how Swann helped this group with remote viewing is told in his book Penetration. The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy (1998). Mr. Axelrod confirmed to Swann that his organization was aware of and were trying to deal with extraterrestrial intruders in their own way: ”Well, I guess you guys, whoever you are, have a problem, and from all I can tell, Earth in under some kind of siege. UFOs appear everywhere, are seen by thousands. Yet they are illusive, but of concern, so you are trying to fit the pieces together. And I would suppose too, that you are desperate, enough at least to try to employ psychics to help you out.
You see, Axel laughed. I don´t have to tell you anything, do I”.

Ingo Swann had, together with two intelligence operatives, observed a very unusual woman in a Hollywood supermarket. His psychic sensitivity indicated that this woman was an ET and dangerous. At a dinner later with Shafica Karagulla and Viola Petitt Neal the discussion entered the problem of ET groups infiltrating Earth. Without Swann mentioning the Axelrod incident he got these comments:
”Viola: There are a lot of THEM, you know, and many are bio-androids.
Shafica: They´re dangerous, you know, and they realize that Earth psychics are their only enenies. Be careful, Ingo, be careful”

This information can be compared with what John Keel wrote in a confidential letter to Jim and Coral Lorenzen July 18, 1967. It was during this time Keel became involved with and personally encountered the Men In Black: ”The people I am concerned with are Androids… manufactured entities controlled by a distant and unknown master.. They are not composed of living cells as we are, and do not grow old… MIB represent a very large terrestrial group who are allied with a very hostile UFO group… There are people in government who know about these things. I have their names and know what is going on… this is not a scientific or military problem… There is no need for the public to know everything”.

I do have some sympathy for the scientific, mainstream ufologists who shun away from this kind of research and data and year after year struggle on with ordinary UFO observations. Playing on the safe side so to speak. But my 40+ years involvement with the UFO enigma has made me aware of that you must dare to knock on some doors usually not even recognized by mainstream scientists and academics. That´s why I admire heretic and iconoclastic investigators like Jacques Vallee, John Keel, Riley Crabb or Ingo Swann, to name a few.

Entering the mirror world of intelligence organizations, conspiracies and esotericism is not for everyone. And once there you may wish to go back to the safe world of everyday reality. In this respect I am reminded of a fascinating quote from Norman Mailer´s famous novel An American Dream: ” I decided the only explanation is that God and the Devil are very attentive to the people at the summit. I don´t know if they stir much in the average man´s daily stew, no great sport for spooks, I would suppose… There´s nothing but magic at the top. It´s the little secret a few of us keep to ourselves, but that, my friend, is one reason it´s not very easy to get to the very top. Because you have to be ready to deal with One or the Other, and that´s too much for the average good man on his way. Sooner or later, he decides to be mediocre, and put up with the middle.” (An American Dream, The Dial Press, New York 1965, p. 246).

Kelvin Rowe and the Esoteric Tradition

In the 1970s Timothy Good and Lou Zinsstag travelled around the United States interviewing several of the first generation UFO contactees. The interviews were taped and some years ago Timothy kindly sent me some of these transcipts, which I mentioned in my blog entry on Howard Menger. On August 22, 1976 they met and interviewed Kelvin Rowe and his wife. Rowe is not as generally well known as other contactees but was a frequent lecturer in the 1950s and 60s. He lectured at the Giant Rock Spacecraft Conventions 1957-1959. His book A Call at Dawn was published by Daniel Fry´s Understanding Publishing Co. in 1958.

I have advanced the theory that some of the original 1950s contactees were authentic and involved in a psychological, sociological test implemented by a group of benevolent visitors from somewhere, probably extraterrestrial. Involved in this test were a.o. George Adamski, George and Dorris Van Tassel, Orfeo Angelucci, Paul M. Vest, Eugene Drake, Daniel Fry and Howard Menger. Could Kelvin Rowe also have been a part of this test?

The story and experiences  told by Kelvin Rowe are in general the same as the other contactees. But Rowe was interested in flying saucers before his first contact and had met George Adamski and Truman Bethurum already in 1953. The first experience was by telepathy on March 9, 1954, as described in his book: ”I was on my way to San Bernardino, Calif., driving a Ford pick-up. I was thinking I would visit a friend of mine in Redlands on my way home, when the word Pluto popped up into my mind and was repeated three times. The words that followed were not too distinct at first, evidently due to my inexperience with and lack of understanding of the use of mental communication.” (p. 33)

Kelvin Rowe 1976, photo copyright Timothy Good

After eight months of many mental communications Rowe had his first physical contact with two ”Brothers”. ”They were fine looking men, with smooth, dark sun-tan complexions, and dark hair styled in longer length than our modern cuts… The iridescent material of their form-fitting garments, similar in style to our ski-suits, was unusually soft to the touch, firm but beautifully textured. (p. 135) After this first contact he met the space people frequently, either at home or was taken up in their space craft. According to Rowe he encountered both men and women and most of them came from Jupiter and Pluto.

Illustration from A Call at Dawn

During the interview in August 1976 Timothy Good and Lou Zinsstag asked Rowe some more details of his contacts: ”All the trips that I have made has been in the small craft. They have taken me to a small craft in a car, and then the car is left there on the ground, and someone else drives off with the car – there´ always one man left with it.”

”Lou: How many people are in them?
Kelvin: Generally five and six – on these small craft.
Tim: I don´t know if you´ve seen those particular pictures (Rodeffer TG), but that´s 27 ft according to NASA. Were yours of similar type of…
Kelvin: The ones I went on were just a little bit larger than that. But it would be in the same area…
Tim: They have these spheres underneath do they?
Kelvin: Well no, they didn´t have these landing gears of that type. But some of them do; I have seen them with that. But the ones that I was on, mostly they had one that after they were going to land – if they´re actually going to land – it would protrude down to touch the earth. But as I say they very seldom did that because when they once contact the earth then it takes more force for them to break lose. They generally just set there and hover…”

Like the other 1950s contactees Kelvin Rowe sometimes encounter the visitors, dressed as ordinary earth people, mingling in society. He also claims to have been taken to Mexico in their craft as well as below the oceans. In A Call at Dawn is mentioned that ”Our Brothers are operating on an entirely different frequency or spectrum than we are here as third dimensional beings.” (p. 111) Not very much has been written about Kelvin Rowe, nor has there, to my knowledge, been any in depth investigation of his claims. On the internet transcript of an interview that was made in March 1991 is published but it gives very little new information. I wrote a letter to Rowe in 1984 but received no answer.

The message from the space people, as presented in A Call at Dawn, is in general the same as coming from other contactees, but with one marked difference. Kelvin Rowe was deeply involved with the Brotherhood of the White Temple, situated in Sedalia, Colorado, founded by Maurice Doreal, real name Claude Dodgin. In the 1976 interview with Tim and Lou he relates: ” I have a doctor´s degree – but I got this from the Brotherhood of the White Temple. I studied for this. Now, this doctor´s degree I got gives me the right to teach philosophy and metaphysics but that´s all. It´s not a scientific degree of any kind and it´s not nothing to brag about or anything.”.

I his book Rowe claims that the space people suggested he study the material from this brotherhood. They even ”approved of it as being the highest source of Truth teachings aviable in the Western Hemisphere.” (p. 46) A call at Dawn is dedicated to ”Mr. George Adamski through whom I was led to realize the true reality of interplanetary visitors; and, to Dr. M Doreal whose teachings have shown me The Way.” Rowe´s book is full of quotes from various booklets written by Doreal and sometimes messages from space people are actually verbatim quotes from Doreal, although not mentioned, especially from his booklet Flying Saucers. An Occult Viewpoint, probably published in 1956.

This connection puts a great question mark on the claims and teachings of Kelvin Rowe. If he really met highly advanced space people they would never have referred him to Maurice Doreal, a very dubious character in the occult community. His claims and teachings are a travesty of the Esoteric Tradition. Noteworthy is this information from Borderland Sciences Research Associates who once asked the Inner Circle about Doreal: ”Concerning this Doreal. His claims are not true. Certainly, he has a large following. Do you remember two people who had a following even of millions, whose claims were false? (The Ballards). They gathered up the knowledge of many occult schools, they cast this knowledge forth upon the people with malice – and for gain. Yet well they knew what they were doing.” (Memoranda From the Mark P. Seances, no. 1, November 17, 1946. About this latter group, The I Am movement, created by Guy and Edna Ballard, The Tibetan D.K. made some harsh comments: ”It is this truth, misinterpreted and shockingly travestied, which lie behind the teaching anent the so-called Ascended Masters, put out by the leaders of the I Am movement”. (Alice Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations, p. 16).

The claims of Maurice Doreal are a strange mixture of esotericism and pulp magazine fantasy. In an 1946 interview for the Rocky Mountain News he stated: ”I saw atomic energy at work several years ago when the Dalai Lama of Tibet entered me into the Great White Lodge 75 miles under the Himalayas.” (Walter Kafton-Minkel, Subterranean Worlds, p. 155). When pressed about his travel claims he said he travelled through astral projection. In the Weekly Sermon Lesson for November 8, 1981 Doreal writes: ”In the astral plane certain entities, forces and powers live. It is there the throne of God is, - it is where the Holy City of the Book of Revelations is found… In the astral are the treasure-houses and there all things man does are indelibly recorded on the Akashic record.” These statements prove that Maurice Doreal is no esotericist but one of many occultists who have, in astral travel, totally misinterpreted his experiences in what esotericists clearly recognize as the plane of illusion.

In the 1940s Doreal was interviewed in several newspapers and magazines, sometimes photographed wearing gold robes, seated on a silver throne that he claimed was previously owned by Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. In 1946 Doreal made this prediction: ” The coming Avatar is now living in Tibet; he is a little over 15 years old. He was born in America, of American parents - and will make his appearance at high noon, May 2nd, 1956, at the corner of 42nd St. and Broadway, New York City. The sun will then be blotted out, but a golden rose-light will spread over everything; a great ray of two unknown colors will descend upon Him from the skies, and for 100 miles around, all sickness will be instantly healed.” (Round Robin, vol. 2, no. 7, July 1946, p. 18).

Although Maurice Doreal claimed there existed guardians from space, Kelvin Rowe must have been surprised by this revelation from Flying Saucers. An Occult Viewpoint: ”The flying saucers are a menace to civilization. Believe me, they are not the Venusians or Martians who are coming here to have friendly relations with earth, regardless of what some of the books tell you. I am not saying there hasn´t been anyone riding in them but it hasn´t been anyone in this country.” (p. 36). According to Doreal these flying saucers were manned by the serpent people who could change their appearance to look like ordinary people: "These Serpent People had a body like a man though covered with thin scales and the head of a great snake. They had the power to cause that head to assume human form in the likeness of anyone that they wished". (p. 41)

With this complicated background how are we to interpret the claims and experiences of Kelvin Rowe? At the first international convention of Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America in 1959 Rowe lectured on "My 350 Trips Into Space". Hardly a trustworthy claim unless he meant astral travels, like his mentor Doreal. To Timothy Good and Lou Zinsstag he appeared sincere. As far as I know there are no witnesses to his contacts nor any photographs of space ships. We only have his story. As he met George Adamski before his first contacts could he simply have been an Adamski copycat, who used the contactee platform to spread the Doreal teachings he believed in? Or was he an authentic contactee, involved in the visitor´s psychological test, but made a personal mixture of messages from the visitors and his occult beliefs? His book is filled with messages of goodwill and philosophy, often in accordance with the Esoteric Tradition. Perhaps further research by American investigators can find clues to the enigma of Kelvin Rowe.

T. Bryon Edmond - ufologist and esotericist

Serious investigators of UFO and paranormal phenomena sometimes, after many years, enter the ardous journey of proceeding from mere documentation of phenomena to philosophy searching for the elusive truth. Expressed in a different way, researchers hope to find a new paradigm or working hypothesis to account for all unexplained phenomena as the mainstream materialist, reductionist paradigm has become an intellectually untenable position. This journey proves a real challenge as there is a veritable smorgasbord of alternative worldviews and philosophies.

Here a few examples of alternative paradigms advocated by ufologists and other authors: Allen Hynek and Gordon Creighton (Anthroposophy), Jacques Vallee (Hermeticism), Gerard Aartsen (Benjamin Creme), Andrew Tomas (Nicholas Roerich), Charles Upton (René Guénon). Readers of this blog are aware of that I have for some years argued for the Esoteric Tradition as presented by a.o. Helena Blavatsky, Charles Leadbeater, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency as the best alternative paradigm or working hypothesis. Simply because in my view these authors represent the most articulate, scholarly and intellectual efforts to formulate esotericism as a science of the multiverse.  A worldview and profound philosophy that can be accepted as a working hypothesis by critical and scientifically minded scholars and researchers.

Unfortunately the ufologists who have discovered and used this paradigm in their research are a rare species indeed on this planet. Two of the most prominent are Desmond Leslie and Riley Crabb, director of Borderland Sciences Research Foundation (BSRF) 1959-1985. As an esotericist Riley Crabb even made this project his motto as expressed in his first editorial in the journal Round Robin July-August 1959: "Since coming to the mainland my lectures have been concerned with the problem of relating Flying Saucer data, and phenomena, to the teachings of the Mystery Schools. I believe you´ll agree this is no easy task. If I have one goal in life it is un uncompromising search for Truth, whatever that might be, and wherever it may lead."

Riley Crabb

In this blog entry I wish to re-introduce a British gentleman, T. Bryon Edmond, who was both a knowledgeable ufologist and an erudite esotericist. I have mentioned him briefly in earlier blog entries. In 1976 I studied Theoretical Philosophy at Stockholm University and was very much occupied with the problem whether it was in accordance with scientific thought and intellectual integrity to accept, as a working hypothesis, the reality of a multiverse in an esoteric sense, although the information generally cannot be verified by traditional empirical data and research. Expressed in academic philosophical language I tried to understand the fundamental ontological and epistemological issues in relation to esoteric philosophy. In common language - what is reality and how do we acquire knowledge of reality?

Unexpected help with this problem came from a letter to the editor of Flying Saucer Review, February 1976, vol. 21, no. 5, titled UMMO again. It was written by Mr. T. Bryon Edmond, living in Chester, England. Here was a man who obviously was very well informed on both the UFO problem and esotericism, quoting authors such as John Keel, Meade Layne, Alice Bailey and Charles Leadbeater.

On April 26, 1976 I wrote a letter to Mr. Edmond, expressing my appreciation of his views and that I also in my research was ”trying to blend the scientific and esoteric approach to this fascinating subject” and was therefore ”searching for people to correspond with who are both, how shall I say, ufologists and esotericists.” On May 1, 1976 I received a very friendly, extensive, handwritten reply saying ”Your letter came as quite a pleasant surprise, and we certainly appear to think along the same lines.” Although I received only two extensive letters from Mr. Edmond, his ideas and theories had a seminal influence on my thinking and research.

Using the method of my old mentor, Riley Crabb, in his journal Round Robin, I will give a summary of some of the points we discussed in a clips, quotes and comments form, with digitized excerps from the letters of T. Bryon Edmond.

From FSR letter February 1976

This probably means that T. Bryon Edmond was not a formal member of the Theosophical Society and as he also quoted Alice Bailey a more adequate term for his worldview is esotericist. What he had discovered was that ”their teaching is relevant to our subject”. In the second letter to me he detailed some interesting biographical data and history regarding his esoteric studies.

Esotericism is of course hardly a respectable worldview even today, if you wish to be a part of the mainstream cultural and intellectual elite. But after both academic studies and many years of private reading of philosophy I have reached the same conclusion as T. Bryon Edmond. Esotericism is the only branch of philosophy worth studying. The Esoteric Tradition, the Ancient Wisdom, the knowledge of reality, the science of the multiverse or The Philosopher´s Stone is The philosophy par excellence.

This statement was a definite eye-opener to me. Finally a tenable philosophical attitude to esotericism acceptable to a scientific and critical mind. Later I found this, esotericism as a working hypothesis view, clearly formulated many times by Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency.

From FSR letter February 1976

This is a correct observation. John Keel was an excellent reporter and Fortean investigator but he was no esotericist and his taxonomy of entities in the multiverse is very simplistic and reduced to elementals. This was one of the reasons that Riley Crabb regarded him as a ”metaphysical illiterate”. But elementals are obviously sometimes reported as UFO entities. In my estimation the Väggarö encounter of October 1965, that I investigated, was most probably elementals.

This is a very interesting comment, that the advent of visitors from other planets was unforeseen even by the adepts or planetary guardians of earth, and consequently not mentioned in esoteric literature. Like T. Bryon Edmond I had in vain searched in many esoteric tomes looking for information about interplanetary visitors in our time. In The Coming of the Guardians Meade Layne concludes that none of the great occult Orders has anything to say regarding UFO phenomena.

It was not until a couple of years ago that I finally did find an answer to this question, by a renewed and detailed study of Alice Bailey`s The Externalisation of the Hierarchy. In this volume the Tibetan adept D.K. actually confirms that the coming of interplanetary assistance was an unforeseen event even by the planetary guardians. But being an oriental he unfortunately presents this information in somewhat cryptic and symbolic language, although the meaning becomes obvious when comparing his many statements, which I have noted in earlier blog entries. Interplanetary visitors came in large numbers during the Second World War to assist the planetary guardians in a critical period for mankind. The implications of these quotes are obvious:

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

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

T. Bryon Edmond, being an old British gentleman, I was naturally interested in learning how he, after a lifetime of study and searching, estimated our existential situation on this planet. As he was a longtime student of the Esoteric Tradition I was somewhat surprised by this honest reply.

From an esoteric viewpoint this estimation is basically correct. Life on this planet is full of pain and suffering. The Tibetan, in Alice Bailey´s books often refer to earth as the ”Star of suffering”, ”this woeful planet”, ”the unhappy little planet of suffering which we call Earth”, ”this planet of suffering, sorrow, pain and struggle” etc. But the reason for this appears to have eluded T. Bryon Edmond. The Esoteric Tradition makes it very clear the our planet is, in part, a penal colony, a sort of interplanetary Alcatraz. This means that evolution on earth is exceedingly hard and much more difficult compared to other planets. T. Bryon Edmond quotes the Tibetan in saying ”On no other planet in the solar system does the same degree of suffering and misery exist as on this globe.” To which Edmond adds this comment: ”Not a comforting philosophy – but I want the truth, not comfort”.

After the second letter from T. Bryon Edmond I heard no more. I wrote a couple of times in 1976 but as he was a very old man I suspected he had died. His two very extensive letters were a great help to me during the 1970s, especially since I received a long list of recommended literature. To this day I cherish the memory of my correspondent, friend and mentor.