Most books so far published on the inner earth theme has lacked the essential quality of intellectual integrity and balance. They have rightly been relegated to the category of fringe literature by the mainstream ufologists. The English author Mr Alec MacLellan /pseud./ is not a ufologist, but his book "The Lost World of Agharti" stands out as a qualified attempt to come to terms with the inner earth enigma. Mr MacLellan was catapulted into the strange world of Agharti mystique by a personal experience in a Yorkshire cave, where he observed a green pulsating light accompanied by a humming sound.

On his search for an explanation to this episode he delves into old volumes on the Yorkshire caves and eventually stumbles on the connection with the legend of a hidden underground world - The kingdom of Agharti. World literature on religion, folklore and the occult are amazingly rich in references to hidden caverns in the earth. Plato speaks of "tunnels both broad and narrow, in the interior of the earth". The indians of both North and South America, as well as the eskimos, have legends relating how they in olden days emerged from caverns in the earth and that some races are still living there.

One of the first modern westerners to investigate the legend of Agharti was the French consular official Louis Jacolliot who wrote some twenty volumes on his researches in the Orient. Regarding "Aagharta" he claims: "Those who dwell there are possessed of great powers and have knowledge of all the world affairs. They can travel from one place to another by passageways which are as old as the kingdom itself". The founder of theosophy, madame Blavatsky, mentions in Isis Unveiled the existence of an enormous tunnel system linking Peru and Bolivia. While into the theosophical tradition I think credit should be given to Charles Leadbeater and Alice Bailey. Both writers refer to an unknown race of people living in caves deep below the earth, but Mr MacLellan has no reference to these sources.

"You know that in the two greatest oceans of the east and west there were formerly two continents. They disappeared under the water but their people went into the subterranean kingdom". This explanation is given by a Tibetan lama to Mr Ferdinand Ossendowski, whose work "Beast, Men and Gods" has become a minor classic in inner earth lore. In this book Mr Ossendowski relates the famous predictions made by "The king of the World", the ruler of Agarti who announces the reemergence of the underground people. In theosophical terminology Shamballah refers only to a spiritual centre but the Russian explorer and mystic Nicholas Roerich knew there was a deeper mystery and was not afraid to say so to a lama he encounters: ...do not speak to me about the heavenly Shamballah only, but also about the one on earth: because you know as well as I, that on earth Shamballah is connected with the heavenly one". When Roerich later observes a UFO flying over the Himalayas the lamas speak of the object as "the sign of Shamballah".

Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton was a famous novelist and Rosicrucian in Victorian England. He wrote a peculiar novel called "The coming race". This book was to have an influence probably never expected by the author. In prewar Berlin there existed a secret society called The Luminous Lodge, or The Vril Society. It was literally based on "The coming Race". One of the members of this society was professor Karl Haushofer, who deeply influenced Hitler in his early days. According to Mr MacLellan Haushofer actually lent the book to Hitler. The essence of "The Coming Race" is that the objective of the techologically advanced beings in the inner earth is to emerge from their underworld to take control of the rest of the planet. If Mr MacLellan had been a ufologist he would probably have noted the uncanny physical likeness between the Vril race and the men in black type humanoids in UFO contactee lore. The author has done a good amount of research on Vril power. He has examined documents belonging to initiates of the Vril Society. He concludes that "Vril is actually an ancient Indian name for the tremendous resources of energy which are made available as a result of mastering the etheric body...and control of the life forces in the human body".

After many years of research Mr MacLellan has become convinced of the reality of Agharti and the tunnel systems. As a ufologist I have been forced to consider the same theory, fantastic though it seems. If there is any truth in this theory it gives a whole new dimension to the official silence policy on UFOs. John Keel wrote in a recent letter to AFU: "they have hidden behind the extraterrestrial myth". But who are they? Perhaps Mr MacLellan has found a piece in this jig-saw

Alec MacLellan: The Lost World of Agharti. The Mystery of the Vril Power. - London, Souvenir Press, 1982. - 231 pp, ill, £7.95

Håkan Blomqvist

(Publicerad i AFU Newsletter nr. 25, sept 1982-april 1983)