Flying Saucer Pilgrimage

It is generally a good idea to return to the classics in any genre. This also goes for UFO literature. Rereading a book after ten or twenty years is a rewarding experience. You will discover new data and ideas you didn´t notice before. The reason, of course, is that you are, in many ways, not the same person reading the book the second or third time. Hopefully you have advanced in knowledge, experience, intellectual and spiritual discernment. I have made it a habit to reread, especially the contactee classics of the 1950s as there is in my view a deeper mystery involved in what happened during that era. The classic chosen for this blog is one of my favourites - Flying Saucer Pilgrimage by Bryant and Helen Reeve.

This book was published by Ray Palmer´s Amherst Press in 1957, with a second edition 1965. In an article in Flying Saucer Review, July-August 1957, Crossing The Cosmic Barrier, Bryan and Helen narrates how it all began: ”Please note that we both started out as sceptics. How come a stayed engineer like myself, working with a respectable and staid manufacturing company, and my perfectly sane and sensible wife – how come we ever entered upon so bizarre a venture as a flying saucer research? Well, a good friend burst into our home in 1953 with a copy of Flying Saucers Have Landed, by Leslie and Adamski, and that started a very hot argument!”

Helen and Bryant Reeve

The Reeve couple wasn´t satisfied with arguments. They really wanted to know the truth about these flying saucer stories. So they invited George Adamski for a lecture in their hometown Detroit. What they didn´t realize at that time was that this initiative would result in a journey across the United States and Mexico, covering two years of time and more than 23,000 miles of travel. Bryant and Helen published the results of their research in Flying Saucer Pilgrimage, which gives a very good overview of the UFO contactee scene of the 1950s. The authors didn´t just want to interview the wellknown contactees but adopted the policy of trying to live with the contactees to get the ”feel” of their stories and personalities.

The beginning with the Adamski lecture in Detroit 1953 could have ended in real trouble for the Reeve family. With his inspiring jocularity and espri Bryant narrates what happened:
”I came home tired from work on evening and was greeted brightly by my wife Helen with the remark, ”Congratulations! You´ve just rented the Masonic Temple”.
”I´ve just rented what?” I yelled.
”The Detroit Masonic Temple – for the public to hear Mr. Adamski – only $1,200.00 – I signed you up!”
To say that I was ready to ”give the saucers back to the Venusians” was putting it mildly.” The Detroit Masonic Temple had 5,000 seats. The pre-sale of tickets was not too encouraging and it was a rainy day. But Bryant was in for a big surprise. 4,700 people attended George Adamski´s lecture.

After this success Bryant and Helen continued inviting several contactees and authors to lecture in Detroit: Truman Bethurum, George Hunt Williamson and Desmond Leslie. There is an interesting sidelight to the Leslie lecture in October 1954. Leslie mentioned that during his American tour he had met a U.S. Air Force officer who confirmed the rumor that a flying saucer had landed at Muroc/Edwards Air Force base and that President Eisenhower was taken to see it. This story was first introduced by occultist and contactee Gerald Light (Dr. Kappa) in a letter, April 1954, to Meade Layne, director of Borderland Sciences Research Foundation (BSRF). The original letter is preserved at AFU.

Desmond Leslie

In August of 1954 Bryant Reeve retired from his work as engineer. The couple sold their Detroit home, bought a new car which they loaded with ”saucer books, tape-recordings of saucer lctures, a tape recorder, photographic equipment and the like”. Late in October 1954 they crossed the border at Laredo, Texas, heading for Mexico City with a six months´ Tourist Permit. Helen found an article about ”platillos voladores” in a Mexican newspaper, written by ”Senor Gebe”. They contacted this journalist which started a chain reaction of flying saucer activities for the Reeve couple. Their Mexico City apartment became an unofficial headquarters for saucer interest in the capital and they became quite well known as saucer experts, even appearing as ”typical gringo tourists” in a film, Rehearsal for a Crime, by distinguished movie director Louis Bunuel.

On January 7, 1955 Bryant Reeve lectured for an audience of over two hundreds Mexicans and friends interested in UFOs. It was during this lecture that Salvador Villanueva Medina the (Mexican Adamski) first told of his encounter and conversation with two spacemen some three hundreds miles north of Mexico City on the Laredo Road in August of 1953. Bryant and Helen decided to investigate his story thoroughly and together with their friend Billgey, Senor Gebe and his son they travel with Salvador Villanueva Medina to the contact point. They interviewed Medina at the landing site, checking every detail, and took samples of the soil and vegetation. Bryant and Helen finally concluded that he had told the truth.

Camping near Valles, Mexico. From left Senor Gebe´s son, Helen Reeve, Billgey, Salvador Medina

While in Mexico the couple received a letter from George Adamski. He arrived for a vacation in Mexico in March 1955. During his stay Bryant and Helen arranged a lecture by Adamski at the Insurgentes Theatre in Mexico City. In large letters appeared the sign ”Conferencia Los Platillos Voladores Por George Adamski”.

George Adamski and Salvador Medina in Mexico 1955

Helen and Bryant in front of the Insurgentes Theatre, Mexico City

After six hectic months in Mexico, Bryant and Helen continued their journey into USA, crossing the border at El Paso, Texas. Not far from the little town of Joshua Tree, on their way to visit George Van Tassel at Giant Rock, they observe a cigar-shaped craft moving over a mountain some miles away. They spend several days with the Van Tassel family and are also invited to attend one of Van Tassel´s psychic communications with space people, in the room beneath the Giant Rock. Bryant narrates: ”I am not myself ”psychic” at all – no more than a fence post! But I am rather sensitive to mild electric currents, to radiations and currents of energy, and I personally felt an amazing flow of energy in that room. It was something like a galvanic current through my body. I noticed that it manifested itself with particular strength before and during that contacts made by Van.”

Next stop on the Reeve´s pilgrimage was San Diego, where the spent several months with Meade Layne and the unique deep trance medium Mark Probert. This long visit proved to be seminal in the couples search for answers to the UFO enigma. They now realized that ”flying saucers are more than a mere physical manifestation”. In a summary and evaluation of their journey and experiences Bryant Reeve remarked: ”… I believe the greatest thrill of all for me came in San Diego when with the help om Mark Probert we talked to his Inner Circle! For the first time on our entie pilgrimage I felt that we personally had made a contact with advanced intelligences who could give us worthwhile information from a cosmic viewpoint.” (p. 276)

Mark Probert

Bryant and Helen also visited Daniel Fry, Orfeo Angelucci and many others. They did find some contactees that were obvious frauds or imposters but no names are mentioned. The Reeve´s pilgrimage is a very good example of the Jacques Vallee statement that UFO research is a ”process of initiation”. Flying Saucer Pilgrimage ends with the conclusion: ”The quest for knowledge of outer-space has turned into the quest for knowledge of LIFE itself – and that never ends!”

In a follow-up book The Advent of  the Cosmic Viewpoint (1965), Bryant Reeve continue and deepen the quest for knowledge, entering the world of psychic research, paranormal phenomena and metaphysics. In spite of their extensive quest for a new worldview Bryant and Helen never appears to have studied the Esoteric Tradition, Theosophy, Alice Bailey etc. Although they do mention that ”from our analysis, the teachings of the space beings appear to support many of the principles taught in oriental philosophies by seers of the Far East.” (p. 244, Pilgrimage).

Edith Nicolaisen, founder of the Parthenon publisning house, corresponded with Bryant and Helen Reeve 1958-1966. Edith received the publishing rights for a Swedish edition of Flying Saucer Pilgrimage, but the project was never implemented due to lack of ”idealistic” translators and lack of money. Very unfortunate as this classic from the 1950s is a joy to read with an abundance of information on the inside world of the original UFO contactees. It also represents much of the early hope and vision for a better world inspired by the contacts with space visitors.

The Edith Nicolaisen - Elizabeth Klarer correspondence

In the voluminous Parthenon correspondence file at AFU is preserved letters from almost all the wellknown public contactees of the 1950s and 60s. Edith Nicolaisen, founder of the Parthenon publishing house, had the ambition to translate and publish as many contactee books in Swedish as possible. One of her close friends, although they never met, was Elizabeth Klarer (1910-1994) a South African woman with contact experiences that eventually would prove quite shocking to Edith and many of her colleagues in the UFO and New Age community. The Nicolaisen – Klarer correspondence file consists of 23 letters, written between 1956-1976.

Elizabeth Klarer

The original UFO observations and contact experiences of Elizabeth Klarer were published in Flying Saucer Review, Nov-Dec 1956. The first close encounter occurred on December 27, 1954, in the Drakensberg Mountains of Natal, when Elizabeth observed a flying saucer hovering close to the ground. She observered a man in one of the portholes: ”The most handsome man I have ever seen”. It was not until July 17, 1956 when she again encountered the same saucer, but this time it was landed and the man, Akon from Venus, stood beside the craft. He invited her to enter and she was given a short trip and offered water, a red apple and other fruit similar to bananas. The tall Venusian spoke perfect English and claimed to have lived a short while on our planet. He had a fair golden-hued skin while another member of the crew was short, stocky with olive skin. After some conversation Elizabeth is returned to the same spot. On July 17, 1956 she succeeded in taking seven photographs of the flying saucer. Edith Nicolaisen read the Flying Saucer Review article and immediately wrote a letter Elizabeth and received a reply February 7, 1957.

In her second letter to Elizabeth, Edith Nicolaisen gave a detailed summary of her own life and experiences. She was usually very reluctant to reveal personal details of her life, especially to her Swedish correspondents, but were somewhat more open when writing to contactee friends around the world. This is the only letter I have found, so far, mentioning possible meetings with extraterrestrials: ”You know, George A., has often written that ”the Brothers” from other planets walk among us, and I do believe that I have met one at Stockholm and one at Copenhagen, George told me once that they have a very characteristic feature – and I believe that I have recognized this particular feature. The latter at Copenhagen could have been 40 years but also 400 years! Next time I shall try to get the courage to address this type of gentlemen.”

(Letter from Edith Nicolaisen to Elizabeth Klarer, Feb. 23, 1957).

Edith and Elizabeth continued a friendly correspondence and in 1959 Parthenon published  the small booklet I rymdskepp över Drakensberg. This was essentially the material from the Flying Saucer Review article, with some updated information from Elizabeth. A second edition was published in 1967.

Photo by Elizabeth Klarer, July 17, 1956

Backside of photo

In a letter August 29, 1961 Edith asked Elizabeth about another South African contactee woman, who had published a small book, Transvaal Episode – A UFO Lands in Africa. The author, Anchor, was the pen name of Ann Grevler. In her reply Elizabeth told about the strange vendetta between these two woman contactees, a controversy followed up in the local press.

Elizabeth became a very well known contactee in South Africa and also claimed that members of the military and intelligence community was interested in her experiences. But she was also rather suspicious of the motives of many of her friends and correspondents: ”You see, Nic, I have always been wary of the men who worked behind the Flying Saucer Review in London (this in confidence) and my manuscript was posted to Neville Spearman at their request and Col. Botha told me that he knows some of them and that they are British Intelligence (MI5).” (Letter from Elizabeth Klarer to Edith Nicolaisen May 12, 1964). Editor of Flying Saucer Review in 1964 was Waveney Girvan. He died on October 22, 1964 and was replaced as editor by Charles Bowen.

The manuscript mentioned was first published by the German organisation DUIST in 1977, Jenseits der Lichtmauer. The first English version, Beyond the Light Barrier, published in 1980 by Howard Timmins, Cape Town, South Africa. Elizabeth had worked on this manuscript since around 1960, adding and updating experiences that would prove to be very controversial. She had fallen in love with Akon and she had given birth to their son, Ayling, when taken to the new home of Akon on Meton, one of the planets orbiting Proxima Centauri: ”I am at present rewriting my whole manuscript and hope to complete it as soon as possible. I received the copy back from Karl Veit in West Germany. I think my manuscript shocked them – but I cannot hide the truth in these matters.
(Letter from Elizabeth Klarer to Edith Nicolaisen, Feb. 7, 1966).

That Edith also was chocked to hear about this new revelation is evident. Her views on sex were very strict and ascetic, influenced by the teachings of Rudolf Steiner and Max Heindel. In a letter to another of her South African friends, ufologist Philipp Human, she made her views on the manuscript very clear: ”With thanks received your letter of 22 June 1966, and for your information about Mrs. Klarer. Don´t be afraid, we shall never publish E. Klarer´s story with her Venusian lover, long ago I heard about the contents of her book from our friends Veits in Germany. But I would like to reprint her little booklet about her contacts. I do believe that she has had some sort of contact.”

(Letter from Edith Nicolaisen to Philipp Human, July 4, 1966).

Edith corresponded with Philipp Human 1958-1967. He was in the 1950s a close friend and admirer of Elizabeth Klarer: ”Meeting Mrs. Klarer and getting to know her has been the biggest event yet in my life. Her knowledge about the universe is phenomenal and she has been kind and helpful to me. I was thrilled to hold a small stone her friend brought to her from Venus during his last visit… He actually visited her home.”
(Letter from Philipp Human to Edith Nicolaisen, April 17, 1958).

Philipp Human

Philipp Human´s admiration for Elizabeth would soon end when she criticized his views on psychic contactees and revealed that Akon was her lover: ”With regard to Mrs. Klarer, I´m afraid I shall have to disappoint you. Our correspondence came to a halt when I told her how a space man had contacted me through a trance medium. She gave me a severe telling off. No space man would stop to such methods… Ever since then Elizabeth and I have parted ways. You will be horrified to hear that I do not believe one word of her supposed to be contacts and it was a standing joke the way she was helped to photograph an ordinary motor car hubcap. So much for her photographs… I typed the original MSS. That was before she added additional material to tell of her pregnancy caused by her Venusian lover, and how he had taken her to Venus to give birth to this blue-eyed fair-haired Venusian baby who would never be allowed to visit this planet but was being reared by Akon´s sister. I pray that this book will never be published.”

(Letter from Philipp Human to Edith Nicolaisen, June 22, 1966).

Trying to make an assessment of all the claims of Elizabeth Klarer today is exceedingly difficult. To my knowledge there was practically no detailed, serious investigation made during her lifetime. One of the few ufologists who tried to document the Klarer case was Cynthia Hind from Zimbabwe. She reflects on what could have been checked at an early stage in the contacts: the relatives who could have confirmed Elizabeth´s pregnancy are now dead. Cynthia personally held the ring in her hand that Elizabeth claimed was a present from Akon. No examination made. No geological analysis was made of the rock from Meton, kept by Elizabeth. And to my knowledge there has been no study of the photo negatives showing the flying saucer.

Elizabeth Klarer at the 1967 DUIST congress, Wiesbaden

There are several classic cases where there are more or less independent confirmation that the contactee really did meet "aliens" - whoever they are. Ufologist Cynthia Hind reports in her UFO Afrinews, January 1999, that this scenario also came up in the Elizabeth Klarer case. The owner of a hotel in Natal, South Africa suddenly finds an unusual man standing in the reception area: "... tall, blond, very good-looking guy, rather strange, but with good features and high cheekbones." He asks for Elizabeth Klarer but is told no one with that name has been booked at the hotel. He then disappears in a strange way. About a week later Elizabeth Klarer did arrive and booked into the hotel. The owners mention the man and Elizabeth shows a photo of a bust of her space man Akon. He is immediately recognized as the strange visitor. Cynthia Hind, who was quite sceptical of Klarer and did a lot of investigations, still had this conclusion: "All these factors need examination and it is time we stopped casting aside cases like Elizabeth Klarer and Edwin which, although sounding like hoaxes, are not obviously so."

In her last letter to Edith Nicolaisen (Nov. 27, 1976), Elizabeth Klarer wrote  regarding Beyond the Light Barrier: ”This book is a must for you and I hope you will be able to publish it at Parthenon.” But Edith never replied and ended twenty years of friendship and correspondence with silence. She published a second edition of Klarer´s first booklet I rymdskepp över Drakensberg, but never mentioned the second book. Instead of trying to understand what had happended to Elizabeth and openly expressing her disappointment and doubts, Edith simply ended the contact.

This attitude epitomize the dilemma of the New Age contactee-oriented UFO movement: researchers or missionaries? To Edith Nicolaisen the spiritual message of the space people was of the highest priority. Research was interesting if it could support the spiritual message. Edith was to learn the hard way that research and spiritual messages not always worked together. This was probably one of the reasons why she, beginning in the 1960s, became more and more oriented towards mysticism and the doomsday prophecies of Richard Graves and Yul Verner. She could have avoided these pitfalls and developed a more balanced view if she instead of relying on Rudolf Steiner and Max Heindel had followed in the footsteps of the core Esoteric Tradition of Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and Swedish esotericist Henry T. Laurency. Inspite of her intellectual training and academic credentials she never appears to have found the works of Laurency. Edith Nicolaisen was and remained all her life the New Age missionary.

Dane Rudhyar and Esoteric Intervention

It was Jacques Vallee who coined the phrase Esoteric Intervention Theory in Messengers of Deception, published in 1979. This idea struck a deep chord in me when I first encountered it and resulted in an article - a preliminary source study – published in AFU Newsletter no 19, April-Sept. 1980. I have since then followed up on all leads I could find relating to this theory or working hypothesis. An interesting comment on UFOs and esoteric intervention was made by esotericist Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) in Occult Preparations for a New Age (1975).

There are two quotes in his book I find of special significance:

”The question almost inevitably comes to mind whether the Occult Brotherhoods, if they are indeed trying to establish a new public contact with mankind during the last quarter of this twentieth century, may not be ready to use the UFO myth for their purpose, just as they used — with quite unhappy results, alas — Spiritualistic and psychic phenomena in order to impress a transcendent kind of knowledge upon the collective mentality of our Western world, and through it, of mankind as a whole.” (p. 252)

”While in the nineteenth century Spiritualism sought to establish the existence of human minds and soul-entities beyond the borderline of the physical world, the twentieth century UFO movement — which also produced a wide variety of "communications" from "Space-People" — attempts to show that "men" from other planets or solar systems exist. Both movements represent an attempt at expanding consciousness and human contacts, and it will be interesting to see whether, after 1975, the occult "messenger" announced by HPB will use the UFO concept to gain public notice, and soon after also show that the usual interpretation given to flying saucers and space-people is not the correct one.” (pp. 43-44)

In 1984, the year before he died, I wrote a letter to Dane Rudhyar asking him about the American occultist Brown Landone and his assertion that some of the Tibetan adepts have moved their headquarters to South America, a claim mentioned in Rudhyar´s book. His reply may be of interest to students of the Esoteric Tradition.

Dane Rudhyar´s field of expertise was not UFO phenomena and the UFO movement, otherwise he most assuredly would have discovered the strong indications that there actually was an esoteric intervention, using the ”UFO concept” - but it happened already in the 1950s. From basically two sources it was stated that one or several esoteric lodges cooperated with benevolent alien visitors in an attempt or experiment to ”impress a transcendent kind of knowledge upon the collective mentality of our Western world, and through it, of mankind as a whole.” The two sources were the unique deep trance medium Mark Probert and the communications published by Borderland Science Research Foundation (BSRF). The second source was the information received from alien visitors and published in books, magazines and lectures by some of the first generation UFO contactees.

While Dane Rudhyar expected a new messenger, a traditional disciple, from the Planetary Guardians presenting facts like Helena Blavatsky and Alice Bailey this new experiment in influencing humanity was actually a brilliant idea suitable for the space age. That it was already planned int the 1930s is mentioned by the Tibetan D.K. in The Externalisation of the Hierarchy:

April 1935: "... the regenerative forces of Those extraplanetary Beings Who offer Their Help at this time." (p. 25)

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).

Beginning in 1946 BSRF director Meade Layne began publishing the unique trance communications received through Mark Probert. The sixteen men and women, The Inner Circle, behind Probert often mentioned flying saucers and were adamant that ”the usual interpretation given to flying saucers and space-people is not the correct one”. Instead they reiterated that many of the UFOs and space people observed and contacted were from another part of the multiverse, the etheric level, and actually materialized in our atmosphere. The Inner Circle members also made an interesting comment on cooperation between the alien visitors and the Planetary Guardians or the Hierarchy:

”There is a certain secret work going on at present between the Etherians and certain high earth authorities (You understand, I suppose, that I do not use the word ”high” in the usual sense. I am referring to those belonging to some of the secret Lodges on Earth). This work has to do with the great possibility of the Earth´s destruction… These men have landed in Australia in a secret landing field. They have not only been to Scotland, but to high authorities in England, and to a few of your men and women here of high standing (I refer to the secret Orders).” (Seance Memoranda From the Inner Circle, November 28, 1951, p. 30).

Irene and Mark Probert

The Inner Circle presented themselves with names such as Ramon Natalli, Dr. Charles Lingford, Yada Di Shi´ite, Lo Sun Yat etc. Could these names be personas, fictional characters used by members of some of the secret lodges on earth? If this theory proves correct my guess would be the Yucatan Brotherhood mentioned by Charles Leadbeater, Annie Besant, Alice Bailey and Henry T. Laurency. This secret lodge created the first physical materialization phenomena that inspired the formation of the Spiritualist movement in the 19th century.

The second source asserting a cooperation between the Planetary Guardians and alien visitors is the information given to some of the first UFO contactees. An experienced esotericist can easily recognize which of the contactees present information in accordance with the Esoteric Tradition. As with the experiment using spiritualist phenomena in the 19th century, very soon imposters and various mystics glamoured and deceived by astral entities appeared in the UFO movement. This was probably one of the reasons that the experiment was terminated after about a  decade. But the original messages from the core contactees had a profound cultural influence on 1950s society and and became an inspiration and hope for thousands of young people of this generation. The message or information presented to these contactees was a somewhat simplified version of the Esoteric Tradition with basic ideas such as: a multiverse reality, reincarnation, universal laws for the evolution of consciousness, Earth a quarantined or “prison planet”, man not alone in the universe etc.

Regarding the cooperation in this operation between the Planetary Guardians and alien visitors these quotes from American contactees ar of interest:

"Let us assume that there is on this planet a group of scientifically minded and spiritually dedicated men and women who are working to accomplish this great task. And, let us further assume that they have already established contacts with equally dedicated people of other planets. To continue their work and remain effective, they must of necessity remain behind the scenes. However, they can, in the interest of humanity in general, send out hints as to what will take place in the near future. Perhaps they send out scouts to make personal contacts for the specific reason of determining the reactions of every-day people. Perhaps it is done as a "smoke screen" to temporarily keep secret the real work which is going on until such time that the people are prepared to meet this new era with many changes it will bring...Then there are the personal contact stories, some of which are authentic, and which have been established for study purposes and for keeping alive a story which must eventually be brought before all people. If given in small doses, the general acceptance will be made over a period of time, and will take place almost naturally." (Howard Menger, From Outer Space To You, p. 7)

”There are also space craft, though of inferior design, which are built by people of this planet. These people are in communication and in service with people from other planets. They are people who possess a high spiritual understanding and have reached an awareness of natural law; therefore they have been entrusted with information enabling them to construct such craft.” (Howard Menger, From Outer Space To You, p. 159).

Howard Menger

”Question: Why has the information you have given me been passed through me? That is, why have I been used as the channel for it?

Ashtar: This information is well known in occult circles upon your planet, and has been known for many thousands of years by those you term initiates and adepts. This information, however, could not be revealed through their agency to the outside world. We therefore have selected individuals whose analytical minds and willingness to accept new concepts will make them channels for the truth. Your recognition of yourself and the channel for and not the originator of this material is both discreet and honorable.” (Trevor James Constable, They Live in the Sky, p. 170).

”The spacecraft that are appearing today are under the direction of the hierarchy of their own planets and are working in close harmony with the masters and mystery schools of the hierarchy on Earth… Thus we see that there is a definite connection between the mystery schools and the UFO. They are really one and the same force in operation… the UFO are in our skies, and we are talking with space men who tell us the same thing that the mentors of this planet have been telling us for many centuries.” (George Hunt Williamson and John McCoy, UFOs Confidential, p. 70).

The future prospects of humanity on this planet are not very bright unless something extraordinary happens. The ”forces of evil and destruction” evident in all aspects of society today are staggering and appalling. Trying to get humanity on our planetary Alcatraz to implement right human relations appears like a mission impossible. It will be interesting to se when and how the Planetary Guardians, eventually allied with benevolent alien visitors, plan their next move.

Watching the daily news I can fully understand the realistic view of life on Earth given by the ”Venusian” Bill to American journalist and contactee Paul M. Vest in the Summer of 1953: "Upon your earth the mere colour of one´s skin - a slight difference of religious belief - merely belonging to a different race or country - in fact the most trivial deviations precipitate animalistic belligerencies, hideous brutalities and the bloody slaughter of millions of your fellow creatures. Can you then truly be surprised when I tell you the the beings of certain other worlds view earth as earthlings might look upon a den of deadly serpents stinging each other to death."