At the age of 14, in a bookstore in downtown Chicago, I made a purchase, the repercussions of which have echoed throughout my life. The book was the memorable story of how our planet has been visited throughout human history by residents of other planets. And of the personal encounter by the author with a tourist from Venus.
Flying Saucers Have Landed, by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski (1953). The book, its cover somewhat disheveled with time and use, still sits comfortably in my bookcase, a lasting monument to my youthful inquiring mind.
Now just a minute, you guys. You're laughing before I've even started telling you about this book.
This is a scholarly work, which reviews ancient manuscripts that -- until this book was published -- no one had realized were actually descriptions of alien visitations to Earth. The authors quote (in both Latin and English translation) a resident of a Yorkshire abbey who, in 1290 observed "a large round silver thing like a disk [that] flew slowly" overhead and scared the bejesus (sorry!) out of the monks. Similar sightings became frequent from the seventeenth century forward. Flying saucers (to use the vulgar popular term) have been around a long time.
Longer ago than medieval England, certainly. How about the Hindu epic, the Ramayana?
"Do thou speedily bring the aerial car for me." Thereupon arrived the car, adorned all over with gold, having fine upper rooms, banners, jeweled windows, and giving forth a melodious sound, having huge apartments, and excellent seats.
Beholding the car coming by force of will, Rama attained to an excess of astonishment. And the king (Rama) got in, and the excellent car, at the command of Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere.
Clearly, saucers may have been perceived as less sleek and modernistic, and more baroque, or even steampunkish, in those earlier times. Later chapters discuss learnedly similar references in the Sanskrit Samarangana Sutradhara, and in Tantric Tibetan works.
These analyses of the ancient texts are indeed scholarly. They have footnotes. True, I had difficulty locating the works cited, but what do you expect from a small town library? I remember trying unsuccessfully to track down an ancient source called Ibid, but I was uncertain whether Ibid was an author or the title of another Hindu text.
But more exciting than this historical research was Adamski's personal account of his encounter with a Venusian at 12:30 p.m. on November 20, 1952, in the California desert. While driving down the highway, Adamski suddenly felt an overpowering need to drive off onto a side road, because he sensed that someone -- a saucer man -- wanted to meet him.
I cannot tell you why. For those who have an understanding of the subtler workings of mind, no explanation is necessary. For others, an explanation might necessarily be long and difficult.
Well! That pretty much put me in my place, and I worried no more about what conceivable scientific basis might explain mental telepathy.
In any event, Earth and Venus eventually met. The Venusian was about 5'6", weighed about 135 pounds, and looked pretty much like a Californian except for a high forehead, no beard, and his wearing of pants that looked a bit like ski pants. Adamski was in a state of shock, I should think, but he nevertheless proves capable of devoting several pages to his observations of the fellow's physical characteristics and clothing. They chatted. That is, Adamski spoke in English, and the Venusian replied telepathically, although he picked up a bit of Adamski's English as they went along.
[H]e pointed to the sun; made one orbit, made the second, then touching himself with his left hand, he gestured several times with his right index finger toward the second orbit.
I took this to mean that the second planet was his home, so I asked, You mean you came from Venus?" ... Then he, too, spoke the word "Venus."
For me, that was the high point. They then talked about the danger of radiation from nuclear testing. And deeper subjects. Luckily, although Venusian bodies die, just like ours, their intelligence goes on evolving out in space somewhere. They believe in "God," but we earthlings have a pretty naïve understanding of that whole subject.
And don't worry about war with creatures from Venus .
The presence of this inhabitant of Venus was like the warm embrace of great love and understanding wisdom, and with his departure I felt an absence of this warm embrace.
Of course, if Venusians were going to eat us, they might well choose to make us feel greatly loved in the years leading up to the Great Feed, right? Like pet sheep or pigs?
I can't tell you more. A 14-year-old has a limited attention span, and he has much to be concerned about aside from the comings and goings of Venusians. I went on to other matters. And later, data from Venus probes describing the climate and temperatures on the surface of the planet -- and indications that the atmospheric pressure on the Venus surface is nearly a hundred times that of Earth's -- made the suavely humanoid features of Adamski's Venusian friend seem vaguely implausible, and caused my mind to wander.
But who knows?
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
I'm still waiting to hear what really goes on in Area 51.
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