"... a graveyard of secrets"

For several years I have experienced a growing frustration over the fact that so few of the old contactees have been investigated and their experiences documented. The most controversial of them all, George Adamski, has only had the tribute of one biography written by Gray Barker (1). Therefore it was with great enthusiasm I received George Adamski - the untold story by Lou Zinsstag and Timothy Good. Ms Zinsstag was the swiss representative for the Adamski movement between 1957 and 1964. Timothy Good is an independent ufo researcher who originated the idea of a book on Adamski, while wading through the extensive files of Ms Zinsstag.

George Adamski was a pioneer and a man with a mission, but a mission given by whom? The authors both refer to the brothers as space people. Ms Zinsstag observerd them on several occasions in public places. She describes them as very beautiful people with high cheekbones and deeply tanned skin. But this is also the physical appearance of our infamous men in black. And the men in black "certainly belong to our own kind", she was informed by Adamski during a conversation at Rome airport. The issue becomes even more complicated when Adamski starts telling about his "new set of boys", which Ms Zinsstag and other co-workers identify as "an extremely clever fake organization... cunning impersonators of spacemen..." feeding him false information. Something strange did happen to Adamski during his later years. The Glendale affair and the Saturn trip were definitely not in line with earlier claims, not to mention the mediumistic work, channeling Orthon through his own vocal cords, as witnessed by Carol Honey.

Part two of the book, written by Timothy Good, is a thorough examination of the evidence, the corroborations and the contradictons in Adamski´s statements. Of great interest is a chapter devoted to the Silver Spring colour movie film. The full story published here for the first time. The original film had been stolen and replaced with a copy with important frames missing and some fake footage added. Mrs Rodeffer experienced continuing harassment after her film became well known. Telephone and mail interference and other experiences of which she only says: "they were terrible". Standard operating procedures, whoever is pulling the strings.

Much controversy has raged over Pioneers of space, a science fiction book published in 1949, ghostwritten by Lucy McGinnis. The similarity to Inside the space ships is too obvious to be dismissed, a fact often mentioned by the late ufologist Ray Palmer. In an interview Lucy McGinnis relates: "The first book was definitely written as fiction and it might have been his way of breaking into the subject... it never bothered me to the extent that I made an issue of it, because, you see, I could have made an issue of it if I hadn´t seen those ships". Adamski once remarked to Lou Zinsstag: "My heart is a graveyard of secrets". And what about The Royal Order of Tibet, which Adamski founded in the 1930s. According to Fred Steckling, Adamski received instructions from "the highest school of cosmic law at a monastery in Tibet... after an attendance of six years". They prepared him for his mission in life. This, of course, brings us full circle again. Who are they? Madame Blavatsky, the founder of theosophy, also claimed her knowledge came from a secret brotherhood in Tibet. In a footnote Timothy Good speculates anent secret brotherhoods and a supposed unknown race living in Mount Shasta: "I have often wondered if this could have been a base for Adamski´s space people and if he might have had contact with them - even in those early days".

Personally I have investigated this particular angle for several years. I was quite surprised to find a perfect description of Adamski-type craft in a small publication from the new age community Stelle in Illinois. They claim contact with a secret brotherhood who have had such ships for thousands of years (2). The Venus and Mars origin could be the perfect front if you don´t want too much interference. Ms Zinsstag laments that the good guys are so "depressingly silent" these days. Yes, Adamski-type contacts do keep a low profile today but they are still around. I have talked to several such contactees here in Sweden.

But if we accept the possibility that behind Adamski was a secret earth-based group, then there is - as the history of ufology indicates - a group or groups with opposite aims. And how do you investigate such aspects? Science or intelligence proceedures? Where are the ufo detectives, asks Jacques Vallee in his controversial book Messengers of deception, ufo contacts and cults. The problem with this type of reasoning is of course the easy slip into paranoia. It is a peculiar psychological experience to be convinced that the history of the world is the history of wars between secret societies. But as Henry Kissinger stated in a recent speech: "Even a paranoid can have real enemies".

1. Gray Barker: Gray Barker´s book of Adamski. Saucerian Publications, Clarksburg, W.Va. 1967.

2. Håkan Blomqvist: The esoteric intervention theory - a preliminary source study. AFU newsletter, no. 19, April/Sept. 1980, pp 13-16.

Håkan Blomqvist

(Publicerad i AFU Newsletter nr. 26, May-Dec. 1983)