One of the failures of the scientifically oriented
ufologists of the 1950s and 60s was neglecting to thoroughly investigate and
document the first generation contactees and their experiences. By dismissing them
all as charlatans and mystics lots of interesting empirical data was lost. But
mainstream ufologists also neglected or didn´t recognize another important
aspect of the contactee era. The core contactee movement as represented by a.o.
George Adamski, Orfeo Angelucci, George Van Tassel, Daniel Fry and Howard
Menger actually represented a unique and positive cultural impulse and a philosophy
of hope for a whole generation of humanity. They advocated a philosophy in
accordance with the Esoteric Tradition, the third intellectual force or pillar
i cultural history alongside science and religion.
Open minded contactee research was not regarded as
scientifically respectable by the early UFO-organizations like APRO and NICAP. Neither
was the message of the core contactee movement regarded as anything of value by
these groups. In The Gods Have Landed religious scholar J. Gordon Melton summarize
this general view of the contactees: ”That such people began to populate the
gatherings of flying saucer buffs became a concern of many who proceeded to
condemn them as kooks or dismiss them as the lunatic fringe. There were few who
saw any value in what the contactees, as they came to be known, had to say.
They were an embarrassment to sober research into the unusual aerial phenomena
called unidentified flying objects.” (p. 1).
This very negative assessment of the contactee
movement was also reflected in the academic world. In his 1976 doctoral thesis
The UFO Controversy in America, historian David Michael Jacobs wrote: ”This
group was completely
different from the psychologically aberrant individuals who, apparently because
of mental problems, had delusions of communicating with extraterrestrial beings.
These people often claimed to receive signals from outer space or to have
mystical encounters with spacemen. Their experiences did not constitute
deviations from their daily lives, and their stories usually were incoherent,
inconsistent, or part of a
pattern
of psychical or occult experiences. Like the first group, these people
generally did not seek publicity or fabricate hoaxes intentionally. The
contactees represented an entirely different type of UFO witness. They
exhibited behavior consistent with the assertion that they fabricated hoaxes…
The five major contactees who rose to national stardom in the 1950s were George
Adamski, Truman Bethurum, Daniel Fry, Orfeo Angelucci, and Howard Menger.” (p.
96, pocket edition).
The contactee movement of the 1950s was of course of
a very mixed quality. It housed a plethora of more or less bizarre cult figures
like George King, founder of the Aetherius Society and Ruth and Ernest Norman
who in 1954 founded Unarius Academy of Science. And then we had the many
mediums who jumped on the bandwagon and instead of channeling orientals and relatives
from the spirit world changed to messages from space people. In a letter to
George Adamski, written soon after Flying Saucer Have Landed was published in
1954, esotericist Desmond Leslie wrote: ”I don´t know what has happened ,
George, but all the mediums have suddenly disposed of their Indian guides,
etc., and have replaced them with space people traveling in Vimanas.”
As very few mainsteam ufologists cared to
investigate the early contactee claims they also failed to notice the positive cultural
impact from the core contactee movement. Daniel Fry founder of Understanding, Inc. 1955 expressed the aim of his organization in these words in various
leaflets: ”Understanding is a non-profit organization dedicated to the
propagation of a better understanding among all the peoples of the earth, and
of those who are not of earth.” In a later brochure the purpose was somewhat
expanded: ”Understanding, Inc. is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the
propagation of a better understanding among all the peoples of the earth so
that they may live in harmony and be better prepared psychologically and
sociologically for the space age. It is made up of many types of people who
have come together to seek better
understanding of each other and of the mysteries of the universe.”
One of the members of Understanding, Merlin Unit
no.1, Mrs. Aleta Johnson, wrote a very insightful summary of the purpose and
work of the organization. The article was published in Understanding Magazine,
September 1972, and is reproduced here in extenso.
A ufologist who also understood the cultural impact
of the contactee movement was journalist Cleve Twitchell, author of The UFO
Saga (1966), a congenial presentation of some of the 1950s contactees. Twitchell
attended a lecture by George Van Tassel in San Francisco, December 1958 and
became intensively fascinated by the subject. He spent several years
interviewing close encounter witnesses and contactees, attending lectures and
conventions. In 1960-1961 Twitchell was director of the El Monte, California Unit
No. 1 of Understanding. After these years of inside experiences in the
contactee movement Twitchell concluded: ”… it should be remembered that many
individuals of the past who today are regarded as pioneers of their time were
in their own days considered crackpots. And so perhaps it is not illogical to assume
that some of today´s flying saucer ”crackpots” are tomorrow´s great men in the
making… Whatever the case, an excusion into the UFO world has benefits. There is
much to be be gained in the way of broadening one´s horizons, encountering some
worthwhile philosophy and simply opening one´smind. The philosophical aspect,
causing men to reflect upon himself and his tiny place in an enormous universe,
is perhaps the greatest contribution the saucer field has offered to those who
have observed or taken part in its activities.” (p. 93)
Cleve Twitchell
George Adamski did not found a formal organization
like Understanding but in 1958 initiated his International Get Acquainted
Program (IGAP). The movement conveyed a general message of hope, peace,
goodwill and inspired members to contact and friendship with people from all
over the globe, regardless of race, creed or color. Lou Zinsstag, who became
the Adamski´s Swiss representative in 1957 tried to convey the importance of
this decision in her book George Adamski – The Untold Story, written in
collaboration with Timothy Good: ”… in the early Fifties, my interest become
polarized around UFO literature. This was the turning point in my life. From
then on, I led a full intellectual and emotional life. My world was full of
penfriends, many of whom I met in later years. Some wonderful friendships and
moving human relationships were founded…” (p. 4).
Lou Zinsstag
In the Summer of 1954 Danish citizen Edith Nicolaisen read Flying Saucers Have Landed by Desmond Leslie and George
Adamski. It became the prime heureka moment in her life and led to the founding
of the publishing house Parthenon in Sweden 1957. Parthenon published several
of the classic contactees of the 1950s: George Adamski, Daniel Fry, Ray and Rex
Stanford, Elisabeth Klarer. These books had a strong influence on Swedish
ufology in the 1950s and 60s. in fact Edith Nicolaisen can be regarded as the
mother of the Swedish UFO movement. The aim of Parthenon was presented in a
small leaflet: ”Parthenon was founded in 1957 as a link in the global work
dedicated to peace and enlightenment, and for the purpose of awakening the
Scandinavian people, especially the young generation, to a perception of our
time´s epoch-making interplanetary occurences… It is our hope that the
Scandinavian youth will join in this educational work. Future generations will
thus be given the opportunity of a harmonic development in a new world where
universal brotherly love within a fellowship spanning the whole world has swept
away all the present barriers between human beings: national, social and
political; different creeds and philosophies, racial prejudices etc.”
There are few books written by people who were
involved in the contactee movement and also tried to grasp the big picture. An
exception is Flying Saucer Pilgrimage (1957), written by Bryant and Helen Reeve.
This early work gives a very good overview of the contactee movement of the
1950s. In an interview in the book Helen Reeve is asked whether their
pilgrimage has finished?: ”No. We feel it has just begun. Our appetite for
knowledge of the space-ships, the space-people and outer-space itself has been
whetted by our trip. We want to know more. The quest for knowledge of
outer-space has turned into the quest for knowledge of LIFE itself – and that
never ends!”
