The Letters from Aboard a Flying Saucer

 

In previous blog articles concerning messages from 'beyond,' proverbs have been noticeably prodigious as also they are found to be within most sources of spiritual/metaphysical expression.  There are numerous cases of 'paranormal' or unexplained phenomena where proverbs have been communicated by a manifesting intelligence in various ways, including the case of the unseen 'author' who became known as 'Patience Worth' in relation to 'amanuensis' (or 'channeler') Pearl Lenore Curran (1883-1937).  Elizabeth Fuller in Poor Elizabeth's Almanac (1980) chronicled that during an expedition-research trip in the Himalayas in 1979 with her husband John G. Fuller (a nonfiction author and researcher of paranormal phenomena whose books include Incident at Exeter: The Story of Unidentified Flying Objects Over America Now, 1966), she unexpectedly found herself channeling 121 proverbs "reminiscent of Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac."  Matthew Manning's autobiographical The Link (1975) included samples of channeled 'automatic writing' and 'automatic drawing.'

 

Ne'er leap before ye search.   —The Case of Patience Worth chapter "Impromptu Proverbs"

For as far as you shall look, that is as near as you shall come.   —Poor Elizabeth's Almanac


Je dis: aux grandes maux les grandes remèdes ou après la mort le medecin qui dit que la patience est un remède à tous maux.  Marchand qui perd ne peut rire parce que les plus courtes folies sont les meillures.  Jacques Chaumont.  1933.   (Manning offered an English translation of this message: I say: a desperate disease must have a desperate cure or after death comes the physician who says that patience is a plaster for all sores.  Let him laugh that wins because the shortest follies are the best.)   —The Link

Among the 'ITC letters,' excerpts from the message accompanying the anomalously received picture of Swejen Salter (seen in the previous blog article and published in Contact! volume one 1996) stated:

  

All thoughts are basically nothing but telepathy.  In our view the human eye is blind, for it prevents the recognition of existing possibilities and extra sen-sory perception . . .

Our message is to tell you that your life goes on.  Any speculations on how an individual will experience it are bound to be limited in validity . . .

What serves as "real" to science is not close to reality in the broad picture.  It is no more than a word in a book . . .

Thoughts have no limits.  Other dimensions and structures of being unknown to you are able to capture your thoughts and our thoughts telepathically.

— Friedrich Juergenson 1992-06-12

The 'contact' experiences of Truman Bethurum (1898-1969) were chronicled to have begun in 1952, as described in Aboard a Flying Saucer (1954).  In Bethurum’s book, he credits Mary Kay Tennison as the writer who helped him to transfer his account to the printed page.  He had traveled from Santa Barbara to an area known as Mormon Mesa, about seventy miles from Las Vegas, to work as a maintenance mechanic during installation of an asphalt mixing plant.  He awoke during a snooze in his truck one evening: ". . . I was startled awake by what I can only describe as mumbling, as if by several people and entirely unintelligible to me.  I raised up, startled to find my truck surrounded . . ."  He described the "small sized" and uniformed men as no taller than around five feet: “Their dark olive hued faces were bland and without lines or blemishes, like the skin was taut and hard over the bone structure.”  One of the men spoke English to him, explaining, “We have no difficulty with any language.”  Their ship was described by Bethurum as “a great circular monster.  It looked as if it were made of burnished stainless steel.”

After Bethurum asked to speak to the flying saucer’s captain, he was led to “a moveable landing step with a single hand rail protruding from the entrance door, which looked to me like a special shaped heavy bank vault door.”  Bethurum was astonished to discover that the captain was a woman and her apparel consisted of a black and red beret, a bodice resembling black velvet, with short sleeves decorated with a small red ribbon bow, and a skirt of a radiant red material that looked like pleated wool.  He would eventually identify her as being just over four feet tall.  One of the many things she told him was that their lives probably closely paralleled those of the earth people.

Desiring to "get proof from them of their presence here," Bethurum asked some of his friends to write down some questions.  One "girl" (identified as 'Marilyn Mills' in a later book) gave him a note written in French.  When he was again reunited with the captain, he had with him "a notebook, a ball-point pen, a camera, a pencil, and some sheets of yellow scratch paper" to write down any answers that he might be given.  He was also prepared "to snap a picture too if the opportunity could be managed."

Some of the things 'Captain Aura Rhanes' told him seem nonsensical to our perceived current human understanding, such as:

  

"Mars is a beautiful place to see," she said.  "Yes, there are people there, just like you and me.  The halo you see about the planet is made of air and dust.  Mars is a great manufacturing planet.  Every home has a beautiful lawn where flowers and shrubs abound; each is a country estate and has five acres of ground.  But, as to where we live, Clarion, I think man may visit there soon and see our beautiful planet on the other side of the moon, and learn how our government is directed by others and me."

Bethurum wrote, "I asked her the other questions the kids had written down, and she continued answering them all cheerfully."  When he asked to take a picture of her, she was quoted: "I think not.  A picture wouldn't do you any good anyway." 

During a later visit, Bethurum gave the captain his friend's note written in French.  Here is how he described the incident that followed.

  

I said, "A young lady from the Glendale restaurant, who was amazed at my telling her about you and your powers, sent this letter to you, which she hopes you'll answer.  It is, she told me, written in French.  But I don't suppose that will bother you.  You told me you speak all languages.  She wrote it in French, so I couldn't understand it, in case I was kidding her along with some kind of joke, intending to answer it myself."

Aura opened the letter and read it.  She nodded.

"It is only a family question and will be easy to answer," she said.

"I wish you would answer it  in the same language," I said, adding with a grin, "It would be a good joke on her if you would give me a comparable answer in Chinese or Yiddish."

She smiled and said that Chinese would be easy.

Then, to my surprise, she held the face of the letter up in her right hand, with the writing toward the wall behind her.  I could see that faint flicker of light on the other side of that wall, and to my amazement, for the first time I heard a sound on that saucer.  The sound, faint but unmistakable, of a typewriter clicking away.  I opened my mouth, but shut it again quickly, and waited to see what I should see.

Aura said, "It will be easy to write an answer in Chinese, but who will read it for you?"

I said, "I expect the Chinese cook at the restaurant may be able to.  I've heard that most of the old Chinese working in this country are of the better, more educated class."

So, out of somewhere in the desk, Aura extracted a piece of paper and a pen and started to write.  Her pen went dry, to my amazement.  I had come to think that nothing could go wrong with the things possessed by the Clarion people.  I said as much to Aura, making her laugh again.

Immediately she gave me a logical explanation.

"On your earth, I am using your earth implements.  Our methods of communication are vastly different, and we have no need for pens and paper.  But now, my pen is empty."

I proffered her my fine line ball point pen so she could continue the job.

After finishing the Chinese part, she started to hand me back the ball point and I said, "You may keep it, if you like."

She said, "Indeed, thanks very much."

I smiled and said, "That is one pen that really be said to be out of this world."

She smiled back and said, "You are not kidding now."

  

The book continued:

 

All the while we had been talking I could hear that faint sound of typing.  Now suddenly one of the crewmen was in the room, handing Aura a typed letter.

It was the letter in French, which had been typed off.  My mind was whirling.  Had the man been able to read that letter through the wall?  And then sit down and type an answer in French?  I can think of no other explanation—unless Aura dictated the letter to him by mental telepathy, which may be the fact.

She smiled her thanks and nodded to the man as she took the letter and handed it across the desk to me.  He left so suddenly I did not see his exit.

 

The English translation of the French Letter reads:
 

Dear Maria:

On this Planet, exactly as on the earth, human beings are of the same nature and have to confront the same problems as you and I.  It seems however, that civilization, such as we find it on Earth, has brought many misfortunes to men.  We are Christians here and on this point we have not retrogressed as I see from here the dreadful paganism which is gnawing at modern countries.  You come from a country where customs and manners are stricter and, on the other hand, there are, in America more liberties and greater licentiousness to which one must adapt oneself.  If, on the contrary, either your husband or you do not place yourself on guard against the lures and mirages of attitudes based on negligence and selfishness in your marital relations, it is often difficult to keep the love of a husband who has strayed from the straight path without any apparent cause on your part.  Try then to convince him by your unlimited fidelity and your complete devotion, refusing to permit your heart to revolt or to reproach past weaknesses,  But, above all, learn to place your faith in God, and, by Christian effort which will be an example to him, try to lead him back to a sincere faith or to increase in him the practice of religion.  Here, God has saved us from inclemencies and has spared us many social misfortunes.  We are not acquainted with divorce, adultry and infidelity to the dangerous degree that it exists on the Planet Earth.  Learn from us about the power such as we have already displayed it; some day Earth will no longer be what it is if men do not change; they are destroying themselves by inches.

From your Friend without equal to those on Earth.

Madame Aura

Bethurum wrote another book about his experiences The Voice of the Planet Clarion with an "enlarged edition" published circa 1957.  In the Foreword of this book, Bethurum related that Captain Aura had instructed him to keep a record of the visits and he did so "in the manner in which she spoke . . . The following pages are the result."  Some sample excerpts follow.  The book also featured contemplative articles and "Some Poems Given Under The Inspiration of Aura Rhanes."

 

You will certainly marvel at her answers,
But you'll know they're from a Master's mind.
She said, "The things that trouble and worry you,
In OUR homes, you'll never find!"


The "Flying Saucers" are here to stay.
Aura told me that today.
"We are not coming for conquest or strife,
Or to steal someone's husband or wife!"


"We have a machine we know is not on Earth,
But we have had it for time untold!
And any time we want any events reviewed,
It is there on a screen to behold!"


"Now people describe us
Like falling stars or comets.
But our flight is a line
That is nearly perfection!
Do you think falling stars
Could change their direction?"