Some months ago while perusing old issues of the
Theosophical journal The O.E. Library Critic I found, in the March-April 1935
issue, a short note with very scathing remarks about George Adamski and The
Royal Order of Tibet. Mention is also made of a booklet by Adamski: The
Invisible Ocean. A rare 1932 publication that I was completely unaware of. In August 2018 ufologist and esotericist
Gerard Aartsen also discovered the note in the O.E. Library Critic and
succeeded in acquiring a copy of The Invisible Ocean. He has now republished
the 1932 booklet together with three chapters on a study of the early Adamski
writings. Also included are two old unpublished articles by George Adamski and a
history of The Royal Order of Tibet.
There are still many unanswered questions and
mysteries regarding the early years and writings of George Adamski. Wisdom of
the Masters of the Far East (1936) was republished by Health Research in 1974.
The small brochure Satan, Man of the Hour (1937) was included in an updated
version in Flying Saucers Farewell (1961). Copies of various early articles have
been shared and distributed by members of the George Adamski Foundation, but a
worthy project would be the publication of the collected writings of George
Adamski with comments and detailed references. In his foreword Gerard Aartsen
mention that the collected writings are published in twelve volumes – in Japan.
Gerard Aartsen
In The Invisible Ocean George Adamski makes a
summary of the purpose with his writings and projects: The Royal Order of Tibet
is for the purpose of establishing the All into One Eternal Life Progress. Its
aim is to bring about the best possible conditions for every soul. It presents
All inclusive Cosmic Teaching, a scientific and practical Master course of the
Universal Message, and a message whereby the individual attains access to
mystery in a simplified way.” (p. 23) Although the teaching is often expressed
in phrases used in Christian mysticism the content is actually a form a
esotericism light or elementary outline of The Ancient Wisdom.
The universe is by George Adamski compared to an
ocean with many different strata and states of consciousness where all beings
develop an ever increasing expansion of knowledge, understanding and perception
in the multiverse. The meaning of life is the evolution of consciousness. This,
of course, is the essence of the esoteric worldview. Adamski uses the
metaphor of the ocean and the fishes: ”As the master fish passes through the
different strata, he will find fish that will appreciate his knowledge and
teaching. As it is with the fish, so it is with us, only that we work on
different planes of mental vibrations instead of stata of water. The master
among us can go down to the depth of the earth and up to the lights of heaven.”
(p. 6).
To make the right connection with ”cosmic
consciousness” man must understand the power of thoughts, from destructive to
constructive, from egoism to altruism. And the path for the pilgrim is ever the
same: ”… if the student is to find his place in life he must transmute his
selfishness into higher fields of action. This could be done most easily,
perhaps by finding channels of service which would be beneficial to many intead
of the few. The more one enters into the service of others the less he thinks
about himself as a personality.” (p. 37).
In literature and personal correspondence there have
been several references to Adamski´s remarkable psychic powers and healing abilities.
My late correspondent friend, ufologist Franck Boitte, mentioned one of these
instances when meeting George Adamski in 1963. To what extent he could exercise
real psychic powers is not known but he does relate a rather fantastic incident
in The Invisible Ocean: ”Knowing the law, we can do anything under the sun, no
matter what it is. One night, I went to a circle where fourteen people were
gathered, and they will all support what I am saying now. I actually brought
forth water from out of the atmosphere.”
Franck Boitte
Fourteen pages of Aartsen´s book is devoted to a
history of The Royal Order of Tibet 1932-1940. Reproduced in this chapter are
several old photographs and newspaper clippings. The most interesting clipping
is from Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1934 – Lamaistic Order to Be Established
Here. A very cryptic remark is that the international headquarters of the order
is located in London. Who was in charge of the this headquaters is not
mentioned. Is this article we also find the very controversial statement by
Adamski that he was educated a few years in Tibet: ”I learned great truths up
there on the roof of the world, says Adamski. Or rather the trick of applying
age-old knowledge to daily life, to cure the body and the mind and to win
mastery over self and soul. I do not bring to Laguna the weird rites and
bestial superstition in which the old lamaism is steeped but the scientific
portions of the religion.” (p. 47).
Part of article from Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1934
According to Aartsen this is the only known instance
where Adamski himself refers to his training in Tibet. But he actually did mention this schooling in Private Group Lecture For Advanced Thinkers,
Detroit, March 4, 1955: ”As I stated before, I am not a Theosophist, a
Rosicrucian, nor anything. I did study in Tibet when I was an eight year old
boy. I took up Occult Catholicism because my father hoped I would become a
priest which I decided against. I have since studied many philosophies and
religions, but I didn´t become associated with any one particular religion. I
have taken the pearls from each and discarded the chaff.” (p. 3).
I have always been very dubious about this claim of
study in Tibet. In 1898, when Adamski was eight years old, Tibet was almost
impossible to enter for Westerners. The few who succeeded had either very
special contacs or penetrated the country in disguise. Alexandra David-Néel is
an interesting example. When Glenn Steckling, director of the George Adamski
Foundation visited Sweden in the Autumn of 2018 I asked him about this mystery
and received an interesting explanation which in part re-open the Tibetan
connection.
With Glenn Steckling at the UFO-Sweden field investigation seminar. October 20, 2018
Here a quote from the interview October 20, 2018:
Håkan Blomqvist (HB): You wrote that he had been six years in Tibet. How could
he get to Tibet which was a closed country?
Glenn Steckling (GS): That´s true. How do you think
he got there? Who do you think took him?
HB: Well, I guess I know what you imply?
GS: George´s actual story is much more developed and
intricate than the public part of it. It was supposed to start earlier but we
were in the middle of war. It was decided in the fifties that he was given more
information and come out publicly but his personal interaction started already
when he was a child.
HB: Was there someone together with him.
GS: This particular school has nothing to do with
Tibetan teachings. At that time there was a space base on the Tibetan plateau.
Gordon Cooper took two pictures of space ships when he was orbiting Tibet and
it was given to George. This particular space base in only by special
invitation.
HB: Did his parents know this?
GS: Absolutely, his mother said take him and go. So
he spent those years in Tibet in a school of mastery. He was not the only
student there.
Glenn Steckling is implying that George Adamski was
taken in a space ship to Tibet and that the space people had a base there which
was only accessible from the air. This reminds me of what American contactee
Trevor James Constable was told by his space contacts: ”The space people state
that three dimensional disc-type machines of high performance originate in both
Antarctica and Tibet… One might look at the Red Chinese attempts to subjugate
Tibet and wonder why this is being done. Do the Chinese know that a high
performance type of machine is built or stationed in Tibet, one that will
outperform all earthly aircraft as at present known? Such a weapon would be
potent in the hands of China´s unscrupulous rulers.” (Trevor James, Spacemen
Friends and Foes (1956), part II, p. 6). Also mentioned in They Live in the
Sky, pp. 63-64).
Trevor James Constable 1961
In the last three chapters of his book Gerard
Aartsen presents a study and comparison of the early Adamski writings with
present day scientific theories and the esoteric tradition. Aartsen specifically
refers to the theories of Hungarian professor Ervin László and his studies of
systems science. Adamski was always very adamant in his assertion that the
space people were physical, just like us. But Aartsen does give a few
interesting Adamski quotes that could be interpreted differently as this one
from The Possibility of Life on Other Planets (1946): ”Even upon planets whos
atmosphere is so rare that life seems impossible there may be intelligent forms
existing – forms having the power of reason such as we possess, but the actual
physical construction may be so fine as to be almost invisible to our sight,
limited as it is to this particular plane of manifestation.” (p. 59).
Gerard Aartsen has written several books on UFO contactees and esotericism. The Sea of Consciousnness is an important contribution to our understanding of the early years of George Adamski. It is carefully referenced with an eight-page Adamski bibliography. This work will be of interest not only to ufologists and aficionados of contactee literature but also to academic scholars of Western Esotericism. Gerard Aartsen is to be commended for this excellent effort to share an important historical document.
