Dorris and George Van Tassel
As several times before I have received excellent
biographical help from Fortean researcher and author Joshua Blu Buhs. His blog
From an Oblique Angle has not been updated since June 2017 as he is now writing
a book on Forteans. Joshua has provided me with much biographical data on
Dorris Van Tassel. A woman that has been described as ”mysterious” by other
writers. That is certainly a correct description. She had very special and
unique insights into the activities of the contactees of the 1950s.
Dorris Van Tassel was born Dorris Jane Andre in
Richmond, California September 8, 1912. She later changed her middle name to
Ione. Her father was Alfred Nyström, who had emigrated from Finland. Mother´s
name was Grace Miller. As a young girl Dorris was a very skilled athlete and
received several awards for her achievements. In 1938 she married William A.
Andre and they had a daughter, Marie Andre, born in 1938. Dorris studied Physical Therapy and she
eventually opened a health clinic, Dorris Health Salon, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma
County, California.
Dorris as a young athlete, upper row, middle
Ad in Sonoma West Times and News, Maarch 8, 1951
In Santa Rosa, Dorris was affiliated with the Meta-Physical
Library and Workshop and in the beginning of the 1950s she developed an
interest in UFOs. I have not been able to ascertain when her own UFO contacts
began but it must have been in the early 1950s. Like journalist and esotericist
Paul M. Vest she decided to help the group of space people who implemented an extensive
cultural and psychological test in the U.S. by contacting ordinary citizens and
suggesting various missions. Dorris became a sort of booking-agent for many of
the early contactees. She arranged lectures for George Adamski, Daniel Fry,
Truman Bethurum and other contactees. But she also occasionally lectured on
flying saucers herself.
The Press Democrat, March 3, 1954
The Press Democrat, February 24, 1955
Dorris corresponded frequently with many contactees
and people involved in the UFO movement. In a letter 1954 to George Adamski´s
secretary Lucy McGinnis she mentioned having observed ”two disks leave mother
craft on one occasion”. (Letter May 24, 1954). So far there has been very
little published describing Dorris´ contacts but she gave a detailed account of
her experiences at Daniel Fry´s Understanding Convention 1976. A short note of
her lecture was published in Understanding magazine: ”Two women were a
delightful part of the program. Dorris Van Tassel told the story of her
contacts with space people, a fantastic story it was too. Until you have heard
her, you´ve missed something.” (Understanding, vol. 21, no. 5, 1976, p. 6).
Dorris had married George Van Tassel after the death
of his wife Eva in 1975. They had worked together for many years as contactees
on various projects. This was mentioned by George Van Tassel in his magazine
Proceedings 1974: ”We left Los Angeles on June 6th and arrived in Atlanta,
Georgia on the same day. We rented a car in Atlanta and arried in Lakemont on
that evening. I was accompanied on the trip by Dr. Dorris Andre, a research
associate and a friend of my family for 20 years.” (Proceedings, vol. 10, no.
5, July-Sept 1974, p. 4).
Much of the work Dorris and George Van Tassel did together
with the space people has only been hinted at in Proceedings and by friends of
the couple whom I have corresponded with. Not much has reached the public. Like
covert agents they used code words in contacs with the visitors and they had
the means to know who was really in contact with the benevolent group of space
people and who were impostors.
At times Dorris Van Tassel´s home functioned as a
sort of safe house for both contactees and space people. One of her close
friends told me how he reacted the first time he became aware of this: ”I
remember the first time there was about 5 space people in Ms.Van Tassel's house
talking with her as I quietly watched, and then suddenly one of the men turned
, looked directly at me, smiled gently, and then very slowly turned to the
kitchen room wall and walked right through the wall! I watched this very
closely as he then came back in. Let me tell you , those kind of incidents have
a very deep and troubling affect on our minds because we cannot comprehend it.”
I asked my correspondent whether Dorris was aware of that these five men were
space people: ”O yes, she knew them
well. It was perfectly normal for her.” (Email February 26, 2012).
Dorris Van Tassel died on June 30, 1991. She was
certainly a woman of mystery, involved in many behind the scenes activities
with the visitors. Researching the history of the 1950s contactees is like
opening Chinese boxes. You open one and find another box inside – with a still
deeper mystery.
