Beyond The White Sands Incident

 

Daniel Fry's Alan's Message: To Men of Earth was published in 1954, the same year of his initial book chronicling his flying saucer contact experience The White Sands Incident.  In his short new book, Fry commented that his previous book was "the factual and objective account of an experience which the writer has had with one of these extra-terrestrial craft, and the establishment of communication with the guiding intelligence."  
 
Publisher Franklin Thomas of the New Age Publishing Company in Los Angeles wrote in the foreword:
 

Because we are privileged to receive a vital and spiritual message from such advanced and perfected beings, delivered with clear and prophetic insight, it behooves us to give heed while there is yet time to change the trend of events.  In this way we may perhaps avoid the pitfall from which only Michael and his angels could save us by direct intervention.

 
Daniel W. Fry in his introduction wrote:
 

The message which comprises the following text, was given to me by one of the extra-terrestrial group with the request that it be given the widest possible dissemination, and with the expressed hope that in its light, the simple solution to our "insoluble problems," might become manifest.

 
Fry divulged that there had been several times when Alan had been in "direct contact" audibly.  He quoted Alan as having said, "Well, Dan, how much longer are you going to hide your light under a bushel? . . . Those who are not blind to truth will recognize the value of the message, regardless of who the messenger may be.  Write what you have learned from us in a book.  You have already met the man who will publish it.  Tell the story through your newspapers, your radio and television stations, and if necessary shout it from the house-tops, but let the people know."
 
The following excerpt is the response from 'Alan' to Fry's question, "Why don't you simply set your craft down on the White House lawn some morning, ask for worldwide communication facilities, and give the whole world your message at once?"
 

"This 'simple solution,' is only wishful thinking on your part," Alan replied.  "We have discussed this before, and if you will think a little, you will see that there are many reasons, both general and specific, why such a course would not be successful.  In the first place there is the psychological aspect.  If we were to appear as members of a superior race, coming from above to lead the people of your world, about thirty percent of these people would insist upon considering us as Gods, and would attempt to place upon us, all responsibility for their own welfare.  Of the remaining seventy percent, most would consider that we are potential tyrants who were planning to enslave their world, and many would immediately begin to seek means to destroy us.  If any great and lasting good is to come of our efforts, the actual leaders must be your own people, or at least men who are indistinguishable from them."

 
Here are some other comments found in "Alan's Message."
 

"The attitude of your government, in common with the governments of other advanced nations of your planet today, is that all new knowledge, particularly scientific knowledge, is the property of the state.  This is not the fault of any individual or political faction, but is simply a philosophism of government which developed during the last two great wars upon your earth."


"Actually, the possibility of atomic warfare on your earth is not the problem, it is merely a symptom, and no one has ever had any great success in curing an illness by treating only the symptoms."


"Mankind, on the other hand, has, from the very beginning of his development, sensed the fact that there is a supreme power and intelligence which pervades and controls all nature.  Man's attitude toward this power has varied from fear and resentment, to reverence and love, but always he has had the desire to learn more of the nature of this power."


"As I have said before: our ancestors were a group of survivors of the last complete collapse of civilization on this planet.  That was more than thirty thousand years ago as you measure time today, but even then they had developed a material science which was, in some respects at least, considerably advanced over your present position."


"The planet, which you now know as Mars, was then in conjunction with the earth and, at that time, the surface conditions of temperature, atmosphere, water, etc. were much better suited for human survival than the conditions which your astronomers report to exist at the present time."


"Of the four craft which essayed the great leap, three arrived safely at their destination."


"We are now essentially independent of planets.  Some of our craft are very large, judged by your standards."


"Your books of philosophy state that man should love his neighbor and forgive his enemies.  Ours say that if a man understands his neighbor and his neighbor understands him, they will never become enemies.  Understanding your fellow man requires the ability to put yourself in his place and to see things as he sees them."


"I will leave you with a final quotation from your own philosophy, 'Examine all things.  Cling to that which is good.'

"Good-bye, Dan.  Do your best."

Nearly two decades later, in 1973 Fry published a new book about his contact experiences with a title similar to previous works, To Men of Earth, which included a revised version of The White Sands Incident.  A brief author's profile divulges: "He was one of the prime movers in the Crescent liquid fueled missile program begun in 1945, and has been employed in the development of the science of rocketry for more than thirty years . . . He has written a number of books, and has been the editor of the Understanding Magazine since 1956."
 
The first part of the 1973 book presents Fry's contemplation of what might have been the perspective of the outer space people just prior to their first contact with him in 1950.  Here is an excerpt presenting how an advanced race might view the war-ridden Earthlings.
 

The instinct to kill is still very strong in all of the races of the planet, and almost half of their combined creative ability and technological resources are devoted, in one way or another, to the development and the manufacture of more rapid and efficient means of intimidating, or of killing each other.  At least once in each generation, each nation finds an excuse to enter into armed conflict with one or more other nations.  Each side is determined to subdue or to destroy the other, and every device or system which their minds can conceive, and their technology can create, is used in some way in the furtherance of this senseless purpose.  These periodic acts of tragic nonsense have been performed, almost as a ritual, by every tribe, race and nation, since the beginning of our ancestor's observations, more than one hundred generations ago!

The leaders attempt to justify these mutual acts of mass slaughter in various ways.  They perform some truly amazing feats of moral and philosophical gymnastics, in their determined efforts to convince themselves, and even their victims, that their tremendously destructive acts of passion, brutality and greed, are actually motivated by the highest of ideals and principles!

Five of their leading nations have begun to work toward the uncontrolled release of energy from the atomic nucleus.  At least two have succeeded, and soon there will be others.  The first to succeed, immediately used the new ability as a weapon of mass destruction.  It was obvious to our social study group that if another general war occurs, and if these weapons are used, the result will be the total destruction of all technology, the loss of such social order as has been achieved, and the death of the majority of the population of the entire planet.  There was a long debate among the members of the Social Service Committee, as to whether this civilization could be saved or whether, indeed, there was anything worth saving!

 
This portion concludes with an imagined insight of the space people: "In our hearts, we knew that these races were no worse than dozens which we, and our ancestors have, in times past, assisted on the path to true civilization."
 
The new narrative presented of "The White Sand Incident" includes a more detailed account of Fry having missed his company's evening motor pool bus to Las Cruces on the night of July 4, 1950 when he had planned "to do a little mild celebrating and to view the fire-works display in the city park."

When I consulted the dispatcher, he assured me that the evening bus left for town at 7:30 P.M., but when, after having had a quick snack at the officer's mess, I arrived to board the bus at 7:15, he calmly informed me that it had left at 7:00 sharp, as it always did!  When I questioned him, rather heatedly, about his earlier statement that the bus left at 7:30, he vaguely remembered having said it, but could not remember why!

 
After describing his life-changing first contact experience, Fry reported:

I went on with my work of testing various types and sizes of rocket motors, but most of my previous enthusiasm was gone.  Having learned how space travel should be approached, it was very difficult for me to trudge along, following a clumsy and obsolete branch of technology which I knew had been abandoned by other races, thousands of years before.

 
Fry had given up the thought that he would hear any more of Alan when the long-anticipated event occurred.  It was a Tuesday after his evening meal.  "I suddenly remembered that I had neglected to switch off the power to the main instrument panel . . . Before I had reached the instrument room, my attention was drawn to a dim glow that seemed to hover just above the top of the test stand . . . As I walked quickly toward it, a sudden suspicion entered my mind, and was confirmed almost immediately when Alan's voice came to me as though he were standing at my side."  Fry recalled the words spoken by Alan —

"Yes, Dan, it's ours . . .

"Incidentally, you can quit worrying about your instrument panel.  You did turn it off this afternoon, but we had to persuade you to come out here for a talk without mentioning it to anyone else."

 
In the conversation that followed, Alan asked for Fry to be of assistance by obtaining and lending textbooks for analysis and copying.
 

"The only reward we can promise you is the inward satisfaction of having assisted in the survival of your race, and the acquisition of considerable knowledge and understanding that you would not otherwise be able to gain."

 
A few days before Fry was scheduled to return home to California, he picked up the last batch of books.  He found a note —
 
Dan: I think I am getting the hang of it now.  Thanks again for all the books, but don't send any more because we won't be able to pick them up.  We have another small job to do and will be away for a while.

Yours,

     Alan.

The final portion of the book is an expanded version of Alan's Message: To Men of Earth.  During the last week in April 1954, Fry had taken a vacation "from the endless problems of rocket development" at his retreat in the woods of southern Oregon.  It was here that early in the evening on the third day, Alan conversed with him again.  Fry commented in his Postscript for the book:
  

The electronically boosted telepathy, by which Alan reaches the subconscious minds of world leaders and, when necessary, injects a few words of wisdom and patience, is a subject fit only for a technical paper, which also may some-day be written.


If the present relaxation of tension between the major nations of Earth becomes a lasting trend, Alan may finally be able to resign his unofficial and thankless task as the 'Conscience' of world leaders, and disclose his true origin to what will probably be a totally unbelieving world.