A recent television program dealt with the Roswell UFO (UAP) crash and someone questioned why our government would cover it up with such an explanation as it having been a weather balloon rather than an alien aircraft. A major reason given was that people would no longer believe in God. My immediate reaction to that was to wonder why believers would assume that God is limited to one planet. I believe God is beyond human comprehension and it is no more challenging to comprehend a universal God than an earthly one. Actually, a universal God makes more sense to me.
Even though much of it exceeds my boggle threshold and my limited intellect, The Only Planet of Choice, authored by Phyllis V. Schlemmer, and republished by White Crow Books, offers the most intriguing explanation of earth history and alien life that I have come across. It’s clearly a “believe it or not” read, but the credibility of the people involved in the study group receiving the information considerably lends itself to the acceptance of it. The information came through Schlemmer, a trance medium, from what might be called a “group soul,” referred to as “The Council of Nine,” with its spokesperson referred to simply as “Tom,” during the late 1970s, ‘80s and early ‘90s.
As explained in the book, Schlemmer’s body and mind were taken over by the Nine. On behalf of the nine members of the group soul, Tom spoke through her in a high-pitched, slow, and somewhat archaic voice. Questions would be put to Tom by one of several members of a study group, a key member being Dr. Andrija Phuarich, a physician, electronics engineer, and prolific inventor. A native of Chicago and a 1947 graduate of Northwestern University Medical School, Puharich, referred to as “Andrew,” served as an officer in the United States Army during the Korean War. He completed his residency in internal medicine in California and is said to have made significant contributions to medicine, neurophysiology, mind sciences, and medical electronics. Among his colleagues and research associates were Aldous Huxley and Dr. Samuel Rosen, a renowned ear surgeon. Of interest to those living in Hawaii, Puharich reportedly awakened his powers of consciousness while living in Hawaii in 1961. He also studied the Brazilian healer Arigò during the 1960s and first became aware of UFOs in Brazil, where he witnessed and photographed a number of them. (See my blog of May 12, 2002 for more about Puharich)
“His academic and career credentials as a scientist are impeccable,” offers Stuart Holroyd, author of The Nine: Briefing From Deep Space, also republished by White Crow Books. He has been prolific of invention and innovation in the fields of medical electronics, neurophysiology, biocybernetics, ESP research, and holds fifty-six U.S. and foreign patents for his inventions.” But Holroyd realized that most people might begin to question Puharich’s sanity when they read the preface of Uri, a book about the controversial psychic Uri Geller, where Puharich states: “I had suspected for a long time from my researches that man has been in communication with beings not of this earth for thousands of years. This personal opinion comes from a close reading of the record of ancient religions and from my own observations and data. What is not clear is why such communication has been kept secret for so long.”
One might suspect Schlemmer to be a charlatan. If so, one must then wonder how she developed such a rich vocabulary about cosmic matters and prepared lengthy answers for questions not given to her in advance. If people can believe in Jane Roberts and Seth, I see no reason to reject Phyllis Schlemmer.
Not God
Puharich and others in study group wondered if the Nine were, in fact, God. “We tell you now: We are not God,” Tom responded, explaining that they might be considered an appendage of God. “But there is One, the highest, that is of the purest light, that is a composite of all, that creates all. Each soul in the whole Universe came directly from the true Creator, so each soul is imbued with this energy.”
Puharich then asked the Nine what they look like. Tom replied: “We do not have a physical body. Although we may put on the mantle of a physical body when it is necessary. It would be difficult for us to describe to you what we appear like. We appear in many forms, when that is necessary. And in your thought-process we may appear as human, we may appear as an energy ball, we may appear as a very bright light. We have evolved beyond the point of needing a physical-type body, as many souls need. We are always here, but you do not always see us. When I say we, I do not mean me, but I mean all of us. We are often observing. There are particular times in your life when we do not observe, and that is when you are involved with your desires. We do not understand this, and it is none of our affair.”
A description of the universe was requested. “It is beyond your comprehension,” Tom replied. “We come from the zone that is cold. This is perfection.” Puharich asked if the “zone of cold” is one of superconductivity, where there is no resistance, no friction, one of perpetual motion. Tom answered: “This is true and this is perfection. We are in the centre. And we do not wish to sound as if we are perfect or as if we are egotistical, but on either side of us there is the positive and there is the negative. And when I say this I mean there is the positive that is not balanced and there is the negative that is not balanced. We are in the centre, and we are balanced. We are trying to bring those other forces into balance…We exist at the pivotal point of the Universe. There is a balance…”
Tom was asked to elaborate. “We will begin at the beginning. In each of you, as in each of us, there is completeness. Completeness is a perfect harmony and balance between what you call ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ This what keeps us in the pivotal point.” Puharich asked for further clarification on the “good” and “bad” at the human level. “It is difficult in your physical world for you to truly understand the importance of both,” Tom responded, adding that it is also difficult to explain in human language, but going on to say, “…your negative forces, which do not truly appear as you see them, manifest in that way in order to instil fear. But what is truly negative – listen carefully – what has created the upset, besides the desires and the greed, is the complete denial and misinterpretation of the existence of ultimate reality.” The desires for power, control, manipulation, and greed are the major obstacles to achieving balance, he added.
One of the 24 civilizations, called Hoova, Tom explained, was the civilization that originally seeded Planet Earth and it is from the Hoova that the Hebrews derive. “Hoova is the civilization that brought forth the Nazarene.” Puharich asked if Jesus, the Nazarene, was truly the Messiah. “Yes,” Tom replied, “But because of their nature, they mostly did not recognize him and throughout the generations, within them lives the knowledge that they have made an error. But because of pride, they will not acknowledge this. Do you understand?” Tom further explained that the Nazarene’s mission was “to reawaken the coding of memory within” and that Israel is a microcosm of the Planet Earth. “Until they can come to peace within, understanding and openness, then Planet Earth cannot come to a breakthrough.”
Again, speaking for the Council of Nine, Tom said: “In relationship to us there are twenty-four physical civilizations, in another dimensional realm. Each is a total collective consciousness that oversees and from these civilizations, physical beings have incarnated upon your Planet Earth, and at times have intervened, when necessary. These physical civilizations, the Twenty-Four, each in its own dimension, are total and complete units of one collective consciousness that have agreed to be in that collective consciousness. They have evolved to that form of action to oversee, to pass through information of great importance, and help other civilizations in their evolutionary process.” Tom further stated that “the origins of humankind did not evolve from the animals of Earth matter. There was one group which emerged by itself – all others were colonized and merged to create species.”
Resurrection
Asked about resurrection of Jesus, Tom answered: “It is true that he was the first to be resurrected, but not in the sense that you understand. He was the first that was returned to his civilization, Hoova, in the manner in which he was returned. There have been many who have been resurrected, but he has been resurrected to his civilization. The people upon the planet Earth who saw his resurrection believed that it made him God.”
Asked about the atonement, Tom explained: “The crucifixion of the Nazarene was not to relieve people of the burden of their own responsibilities: it was to show everyone that for the love of God and for his commitment he would willingly die. Remember that the Nazarene did not attempt to communicate with the Gentiles, only to those of the Hebrew nation of Palestine. If he could have relieved them and made them aware he would have shown them, and in turn the rest of the Planet, the way to individual and global transformation.”
Other civilizations that helped seed Planet Earth included, according to Tom, Ashan, Altea, and Aragon. Tom pointed out that there are certain civilizations, not of the twenty-four or their helper civilizations, that have a great desire to control Earth, to keep souls in bondage. He continually explained that so much of it is beyond human comprehension, at least beyond human vocabulary. “This planet is one of the lowest that a soul comes to, in order to learn a lesson,” Tom added. “The tragedy is the density of this planet – it is like a mire, it is sticky, and these beings get trapped in this stickiness.”
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, also a member of the study group, asked why the information being given by the Nine is not better disseminated. “It is of great importance for you to understand that the governments of your world of Earth have refused to believe, or to convey to the people, our existence,” Tom replied. “If there were an attempt by the civilizations to land upon Planet Earth in a mass situation, which in truth will come to pass in the course of time, the people upon Planet Earth would panic, for they have not the understanding, the knowledge, that we mean no harm to them.”
Tom stressed the need for the people of Earth to understand their responsibility for self, for each other, and in turn for the universe. “It is important for people on Planet Earth to understand that in death they do not escape responsibility, that there is no death. So that each movement, each thought, each word affects the Universe. It is important that the peoples upon the Planet Earth begin to work in harmony, in unison, in balance, and in peace with each other.”
Puharich asked about the “Second Coming,” i.e., if the Nazarene would return. Tom said that a single individual would not return. “It will be a collection….After all, the Nazarene said: ‘You shall know them by their works.’ When people see that we do not come in war because there is no war with us as there is on your planet, and when they see that we come with love and with technology to help this planet that is exterminating itself, how can they but know that we come from God?”
There is so much more to ponder on in this book. Fortunately, or unfortunately, one can, as stated earlier, believe it or not.
Next blog post: September 7
Michael Tymn is the author of The Afterlife Revealed: What Happens After We Die, Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife, Dead Men Talking: Afterlife Communication from World War I. and No One Really Dies: 25 Reasons to Believe in an Afterlife. His latest book Consciousness Beyond Death: New and Old Light on Near-Death Experiences is published by White Crow books.
Michael,
An interesting article. I have Beyond Telepathy by Andrija Puharich. I knew about The Nine. It reminds me of Harold Sherman Urantia adventures. When you get a trance medium, you don’t know who you are going to get coming through: a spirit or an alien. I have only had trance mediums with spirits but I am open to aliens. Not too sure what I would have in common. Probably telepathy.
I came across a past-life hypnotist who received a shock when he was regressing a patient, ran across a block in their memory and then tried to get past it. The patient switched in to full trance mode asking what was he doing. This was a bit unsettling for the hypnotist. He asked me about trance mediums and I explained that we don’t have blocks. Whoever put the block there wasn’t from my side of the tracks. The paranormal has lots of different characters. The universe would have a lot more.
Live long and prosper,
Bruce
Forgive me, Michael. You have posted countless brilliant blogs over the years, and I have enjoyed and been enlightened by virtually all of them. However, to be honest, I thought this was just a load of bilge, regardless of who the medium was.
I agree with Keith.
Keith,
“The Nine” go back a long way before either Phyllis Schlemmer or Uri Geller. In the early 1950s, Puharich moved in a circle around Eileen Garrett that also included Aldous Huxley. Puharich first met Dr D. G. Vinod, an Indian mystic, at a gathering hosted by Garrett in December 1951. During subsequent sessions in 1952, Vinod reportedly entered a trance and communicated material attributed to “the Nine.”
The “Nine” resurfaced years later through Geller and then continued for decades through Schlemmer, who apparently knew nothing about the earlier Vinod sessions when the communications began through her.
Gene Roddenberry attended some of Schlemmer’s sessions and reportedly considered developing a project inspired by the Nine.
Coincidentally, a month ago I was sent an unpublished typed manuscript written by Puharich titled: THE NINE: 1953 (I haven’t read it yet). The manuscript begins:
CONFERENCE 1 — Dr. Vinod — December 31, 1952
“M” calling:
We are Nine Principles and forces — personalities if you will — working in complete mutual implication. We are forces and the nature of our work is to accentuate the positive, the evolutional and the teleological aspects of existence. By teleology I do not mean the teleology of human derivation in a multi-dimensional concept of existence. Teleology will be understood in terms of a different ontology. To be simple, we accentuate certain directions as will fulfill the destiny of creation.
PUHARICH — Do you have a purpose in coming to us?
“M” — Yes, we have a precise purpose. But we shall develop it later. We shall complicate the present by digressing into methodological discourse.
Huxley mentioned Puharich in his letters (see below).
TO MRS. EILEEN J. GARRETT [smith 717]
Guilford, Conn.
27 August, 1955 My Dear Eileen,
I spent some days, earlier this month, at Glen Cove, in the strange household assembled by Puharich—Alice [Bouverie] and Mrs. P[uharich], behaving to one another in a conspicuously friendly way; Elinor Bond, doing telepathic guessing remarkably well, but not producing anything of interest or value in the mediumistic sitting she gave me; Frances Farrelly, with her diagnostic machine—which Puharich’s tests have shown to be merely an instrument, like a crystal ball, for concentrating ESP faculties; Harry, the Dutch sculptor, who goes into trances in the Faraday cages and produces automatic scripts in Egyptian hieroglyphics; Narodny, the cockroach man, who is preparing experiments to test the effects of human telepathy on insects. It was all very lively and amusing—and, I really think, promising; for whatever may be said against Puharich, he is certainly very intelligent, extremely well-read and highly enterprising. His aim is to reproduce by modern pharmacological, electronic and physical methods the conditions used by the shamans for getting into a state of travelling clairvoyance and then, if he succeeds, to send people to explore systematically “the Other World.” This seems to be as good a new approach to the survival problem (along with a lot of other problems) as any of the rest, and may yield some interesting results.
https://huxleyarchive.org/Non-fiction/BOOKS/Moksha%20T.html?
Whether it’s bilge or something more interesting, I can’t comment. I wasn’t around in 1953!
Sorry Keith and Stafford. I’m only about 30% on the alien aspect of it, but I have a very vivid recollection of a UFO hovering over me about 1950 and I’m just getting my memory back concerning the fact that I was abducted and implanted with a chip to program my interest in psychical research and related subjects. I didn’t have space to explain all that. 🙂
Michael, If this comment of yours is not intended as a joke, I suggest it is time to find the chip, have it extracted and analysed for the benefit of all of us. What do you think? You find the chip, I’ll pay for the surgery to extract it.
Keith, the UFO sighting was very real. I was about 13 at the time. It was hovering only 200 to 300 feet in the sky and was a saucer shaped and very silvery. Definitely not an illusion or reflection of any kind. Nobody else reported it. I looked at it for 10 or so seconds and then it zoomed away to the south-east. As for the chip, not sure about that. I didn’t recognize it as a chip and it seems to have disappeared over time.
Keith, you might find the Bigelow podcast of interest. If nothing else, just watch the last 5 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9ZC0dfmOGo
Hi Michael – will your UFO experience be the subject of a future blog post? I’d love to read that. And is the chip implanted “to program your interest in psychical research and related subjects” more of a theory of yours, or something you are now understanding?
Michael and Jon,
You might like a couple of items. The first is one of the Nine gets a mention with Uri. It is at The Why Files https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19Xo3eaE9C/. The second was something that should be added to my previous comment about the hypnotist.
The hypnotist ran into a memory block which mediums don’t see. Past life hypnotists sometimes find these with troubled patients. I did some research for him and came across a theory about implants ( a tracking device). I did not explore further but it may be of interest: The book is called The aliens and the scalpel : scientific proof of extraterrestrial implants in humans. Internet Archive. Published under the auspices of The Bigelow Foundation and The National Institute for Discovery Science.
Why I was interested is that mediums stand out to spirits as lights. The controls who establish long term connection use a signature to connect in the future – a mental trapdoor. My hypnotist friend wanted to know if he had the same situation. I thought the simpler technique would be a tracking device (my engineering background). I looked around and found this book. I have not read it, as I keep to my own weird world.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce, thanks for the link. I’ll be checking that out.
How do supposed details and descriptions about the inherently incomprehensible, about things beyond the categories of space and time in which alone we are able to think…how do such details and descriptions contribute to our growth, in this lifetime, in love and wisdom?
Is it perhaps our lack of faith and trust in, connection with, a loving God or Higher Power that leaves us restless, constantly seeking more information about the spiritual world, constantly seeking more and more evidence that such a world exists? Is it this lack of personal connection that prevents us from leaving our future welfare entirely in divine hands, confident that however ultimate things have been structured, they have been structured in the best and most beautiful way?
Newton, as the spirit of Martin Luther told Victor Hugo, “doubt is the instrument that forges the human spirit.” I am convinced of that/
Newton and Michael,
I fully agree that we are restless in our search for answers. Each mystery serves to confuse our pattern-searching brain. I recently put two and two together of separate events in my life and saw a possible wonderful spiritual structure. Somehow it makes sense but it is only my comprehension that is the limit to seeing such a loving God. I admire Michael’s bravery in mentioning his emerging thought structures. It was his article that made my two plus two connection happen. As such I would rate this as one of his better articles for triggering new spiritual thoughts.
Glimpses of divine plans are rare.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce, I like the fish!
Jon,
So do I. My daughter had a goldfish called Fred. I phoned her up at work and asked Did you forget to feed Fred this morning? My daughter said Yes, don’t tell me you talk to fish as well as dead people. No I replied That would be silly. Fred is picking up stones and shooting them at the glass with his mouth. I fed Fred. The fish in the video reminds of Fred.
Thanks
Bruce
Mediumistic communication with cosmic aliens inhabiting another dimensional realm is not fundamentally different from contact with former denizens of Earth. One is no more extraordinary than the other. The spiritual hypothesis presumes that we are all extraterrestrials who, for a brief time, pay a visit to this small blue planet. While Michael is fond of quoting on the necessity of doubt, we can be absolutely certain that our present apprehension of reality is partial in the extreme.
Personally, I haven’t paid much attention to UFOs, now called by the more prosaic acronym UAP, but I appreciate that Michael has shared his experience and interest with us. It is not a matter of whether we believe or do not believe in the reported phenomena. They are well enough established now to be beyond doubt, and they react in a way that seems to display a guiding intelligence. Beings from beyond the terrestrial sphere are interested in our well-being and are seeking to assist as appropriate in the fulfillment of our planetary destiny. We need all the help we can get.
Thanks, David. You said it better than I did. I also didn’t properly explain my 30% belief factor. It is 30% on the book’s version of it all, but I’m at 96.4% on the reality of UFO/UAP. The big question in my mind is whether they are time travelers from the future.
Greetings everyone,
There is a gentleman by the name of Darryl Anka who resides in California and is a channeler for over forty years and has been active channeling an ET entity named Bashar. The information he has been sharing over the years to put it mildly is positive, educational, relevant to today’s reality and transformational, I’ve been listening to him for years. You can listen to his information on http://www.bashar.org or on YouTube.
Interesting, Tony. Thanks for the link.
Dear Michael,
Your opening observation that the existence of extraterrestrial life should present no particular problem for belief in God strikes me as exactly right. In fact, the opening para under your section headed “Not God” points toward what I think is an important metaphysical distinction. However advanced, ancient, intelligent, or powerful an extraterrestrial being might be, it would still be a finite being within the created or manifested order. It could no more replace God in the metaphysical sense than an angel could. In Plotinian terms, for example, no extraterrestrial intelligence could conceivably be the One, which is not simply the highest being among other beings but the transcendent Principle from which the whole order of being proceeds. Discovery of other intelligent life might radically enlarge our cosmology; it need not alter our metaphysics at all.
I sometimes wonder whether this helps explain both the fascination with extraterrestrials in modern culture and the recurring idea that proof of their existence would somehow displace belief in God. For many people, traditional transcendence has largely disappeared, but the human attraction toward something greater than ourselves has not. Extraterrestrials can then become a kind of horizontal substitute for the lost vertical dimension: superior intelligences “from the heavens,” possessing greater knowledge and powers, perhaps even guiding or rescuing humanity. But this is an inadequate substitute. However impressive such beings might be, one can still ask of them the same fundamental questions one asks of ourselves: Why do they exist? What is the source of their consciousness? What grounds the reality in which they and we alike participate?
In that sense, perhaps the worldviews least threatened by genuine “disclosure” would be the older classical and traditional metaphysical ones. They were never committed to humanity being the only intelligent beings in existence. Indeed, many traditional cosmologies already accommodated entire hierarchies of intelligences superior to human beings without confusing any of them with the Divine. The discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence would therefore enlarge the known population of the cosmos, but it would not challenge the transcendent Principle from which cosmos and extraterrestrials alike derive.
Perhaps the very idea that aliens could “replace God” tells us less about extraterrestrials than about how impoverished the modern conception of God has sometimes become. If God is imagined merely as an immensely powerful person somewhere “up there,” then a sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial can appear to compete for the same conceptual territory. But that was never what classical metaphysics meant by the Divine.
Whatever extraterrestrials may ultimately prove to be, they would remain inhabitants of reality, not its Source.
Best,
Paul
Paul, well stated. Thank you.
Michael et alia,
I have been playing with an idea of late, triggered by Michael’s recent article and previous comments from specialists. It starts with Imperator from Stainton Moses’ description. Imperator moves on to Mrs Piper. Imperator has been described as a towering figure well beyond this world. Our groupthink of God and his/her messengers is affected by the projection from upper spirit levels. When they project to humans, they get the size wrong, producing towering figures.
My question is for the specialists in Moses’ writings, and others: When spirits contact humans, how do we accept their words? How do we know that their messages are correct? I have my own views, but my next question is: if aliens, which are present in non-human forms, give messages, how do we judge them? By the same standards?
An alien-connected trance medium makes sense to me, as it is a non-threatening connection. An Imperator-connected medium makes sense to me as it is a step down process.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce, good question. As I see it, if it is consistent with all we consider good and moral, add it to the cumulative testimony for that school of thought. If it is opposed to the good and moral viewpoint, then ponder on it and dismiss it if it can’t be reconciled with the good and moral. However, keep in mind that there is a paradoxical aspect to almost everything, i.e., sometimes what we think is good and moral is not all it seems to be. So much of life these days seems to be paradoxical because we often don’t consider the bigger picture.
Michael,
I wonder about the quality of messages that are received to add to our moral view. For example Stainton Moses who changes his point of view when in spirit. (If we accept the Mrs Piper’s connection with his spirit is correct). Stainton mentions that he incorporated his own personal views in Spirit Teachings and now wanted to correct them. I had a situation in my working life where we were about a roll out of a national program of assessing industry proposals based on a R&D study. I saw the new assessment program just prior to release and something looked wrong (I knew the research study). It was. There were 18 positive questions. The original had 17 positive and 1 negative. The typist had changed it around to match. Mediums do the same things as the typists. My thinking agrees with yours that the testimony must be cumulative to the school of thought.
Thanks
Bruce
Strange situation, Bruce. Stainton Moses readily admits IN “Spirit Teachings”, in his own words, that the truths revealed by Imperator are inherently intermixed with his own thoughts, and that such intermixing is true of ALL communications via mediums. Indeed, Imperator himself repeatedly makes this point in HIS own words in “Spirit Teachings” purportedly written down via Stainton Moses. So what was there to correct in either case?
The tests for the truth of communications from the spirit world is precisely the same as the tests for the truth in purely this-worldly communication, are they not? Does the teaching meet with the best of our life experience and reasoned judgment? Do the fruits of the teaching enhance the good and the true and the beautiful? We are to give NO additional weight to a teaching, according to Imperator, merely because it purports to come from the spirit world.