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.
”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.
