Case Profile: Flying Saucer Contactee Truman Bethurum (1898-1969)

 

While researching UFOlogy during the winter of 2005, an information source that proved memorable was the UFOlogy audio history archives assembled by Wendy Connors.  A brief eleven and a half minute book review radio show interview was the only track featuring Truman Bethurum (1898-1969), whose contact experiences were chronicled to have begun in July 1952.  Truman presented his experiences in the book Aboard A Flying Saucer (1954). 

The book review program featured Truman as an in-studio guest for Nancy Allen.  The interview was identified as having been recorded on August 6, 1954 in an unspecified city, just prior to a scheduled bookstore appearance.  The interview began with Allen asking him if he’d been interested in space travel and the people who might exist on other planets before his experience.  He declared, "Not at all.  I have never in my life bought or read a science fiction magazine and I wouldn’t have believed my own mother had she been alive and told me that this thing could exist one second before I saw it.  I wouldn’t have believed her.  I would’ve laughed at her.  That was that unreal to me until I actually saw it."

Truman remarked about the publication of his book: "I made much more money working at construction work which is my really happy — my happy way of earning a living but I believe I have a message for the people of the world in this book and I’m going to follow it through . . . Every word in that book is true."

In Truman’s book, he credits Mary Kay Tennison as the writer who helped him to transfer his account to the printed page.  Born at Gavalin, California in the vicinity of the Santa Rosa mines, Truman was fifty-four years old when began his unexpected adventure with the Clarionites.  He declared in his book, "I am the ONE MAN, to my knowledge who has actually seen the flying saucers, outside and inside, met and conversed with their people — and that, not once but eleven times."  Although some of the things he’d experienced mystified him, he set out in his book to recount "our conversations and all pertinent facts that I have gathered from those eleven visits."

Some of the information imparted about the visitors in the beginning chapters included that the spacecraft was called by the woman captain Aura Rhanes "our admiral scow" and she was accompanied by a crew of men that he would later learn numbered 32.

The operation of their scow without visible or audible signals brings the question of metaphysics and ontology into the picture, also the magic-like appearance and disappearance of these space people in the presence of people here on earth.

After growing up in various California towns, his employment included working for water companies.  During World War II years, after 21 years of "happy home life" Truman found himself single again.  He remarried in July 1945 and during this period he opted to give up factory work for "outside construction work, repair and maintenance of equipment."

In June 1952 he traveled from Santa Barbara to an area known as Mormon Mesa, about 70 miles from Las Vegas, to work as a maintenance mechanic for an asphalt mixing plant job.  One evening after looking for seashells to bring back for his wife, Truman recalled that he awoke from a snooze in his truck to find the vehicle "surrounded by eight or ten small sized men."  They wore uniforms and most had "black billed caps with a black band around the bottom."  Truman further described the faces as "masklike" and were devoid of any beard or mustache.

Of the bareheaded ones, all whose hair was black and crew cut, one's hair was wavy.  And all of them wore jackets, like cowboys and trousers of material which reflected a blue-grayish cast under the bright moonlight.  Their dark olive hued faces were bland and without lines or blemishes, like the skin was taut and hard over the bone structure.

I breathed a quick sigh of relief when it dawned on me that none of them seemed to be wearing sidearms or carrying weapons of any kind.

Truman was still inside his car with the windows partly open.

As I raised up to get a better view, one of these little men stepped a few paces forward towards my truck and spoke some words in a foreign language, words which I did not understand.

I shook my head in a quizzical manner, trying to put over the thought that I did not understand.

He seemed to comprehend, and came back immediately with the words in English, "You name it."

I blurted, "My God!  You can speak English too."

He said, "We have no difficulty with any language."  

Outside the truck, he was amazed to see the "Flying Saucer."  He gave the description: "In size, it was a great circular monster.  It looked as if it were made of burnished stainless steel.  It measured about 300 feet in diameter and six yards deep in the center . . . It seemed to be hovering several feet above the burnt out scrubby brush of the desert mesa."

Truman asked to speak to the flying saucer’s captain and the reply came, "Surest thing you know."  The spokesman grasped his right arm with his left hand.  "He did not give my arm a hard squeeze, but a firm pressure, and I had the feeling that he did it to impress me with the fact that he was my superior in strength, and to warn me not to try any funny business or rough stuff."  Truman recalled having blurted: "Where do you call home?"  The reply was prompt: "Our homes are our castles in a far away land."

He was then 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 . . . I was led forward about fifteen paces through a narrow passageway, still with the small man's hand firmly grasping my arm.  Then we turned into a beautifully furnished office or captain's cabin."

Truman was astonished to discover that the captain was a woman.  Her apparel consisted of a black and red beret, a bodice resembling black velvet, short sleeves decorated with a small red ribbon bow, and a skirt of a radiant red material that looked like pleated wool.  In a later book he would identify her as being just over four feet tall.

 

As the spokesman released Truman's arm and disappeared, the captain's first words to him were "Speak up, my friend, you're not hexed."

I stammered, "Are — are you from some European or Asiatic country?"

"No," she said, and added gently, as if she knew I could not possibly believe her, "We travel interplanetary, and it has only been recently that we have landed on your soil."

Truman described her talking to him as being with "a swinging, rhythmic tone of voice, much like you read Mother Goose verses to your children . . ."  He repeatedly described her voice as "high pitched."  During the many visits, he stated that he had "written down almost verbatim all the things she had told me each time, as well as I could remember it from the brief notes I had made." 

The following statements are some of the captain’s comments recalled by Truman as having been heard during their first meeting.

"Time and distance are of no concern to us, and what you call time and distance is inconsequential in our lives."


"We worship a Supreme Deity who sees, knows and controls all."


[concerning the power source for the flying saucer]  "We have no reciprocating equipment aboard."


"We call this our ‘Admirals’ Scow.’  We have others identical."


"We’ll have another visit.  You just think of the place and the day."

Truman recalled about disembarking: "I believe they again lowered the edge of the saucer, though I did not feel it tilt.  The ground seemed only a foot below me as I stepped down."

He saw that "the door had closed silently.  Without fanfare or sound, the saucer disappeared in the rising sunlight, just like a vaporized pearl."  He added: ". . . I'm sure it never did whirl."

Truman decided not to tell his coworkers about what had happened as he feared ridicule but when his friend and boss Whitey told him about being aware that something big had landed, Truman eagerly told him about the astonishing encounter.

Did they scoff and jeer?  And how!  But still they were curious and plied me with questions.  I answered them all as best as I could, even though they laughed in my face and threw my words back into my teeth.

On August 4th during the past midnight hours while working, he was driving when he saw "what looked like a meteor falling . . . toward a spot about a half mile to the east from where I had seen the saucer the previous week."

I had a thrilling hunch that this was my saucer.  I swerved my truck and hit out across the desert, bumping along over the rough terrain, plowing over scrub brush towards the spot where it seemed to land.


It was, indeed, the monster saucer again.


I drove up to within about fifty yards of the scow and saw that already some of the little men were walking around on the ground, apparently with no thought except to stretch their legs and get a little exercise, since they were not doing anything except walking and talking.  The first sounds I heard were unintelligible to me, so they must have been speaking in a language of their own.


And soon this little lady captain I told you about appeared in the entrance of the saucer and held out her right hand, beckoning to me.

The brown-eyed captain's first remark was remembered to be: "Were you surprised to see us back?"

Truman wrote, "She told me that their lives probably closely paralleled those of the earth people."  Captain Aura is quoted: "The things that trouble and worry you earth people in our homes you'll never find.  We know nothing of illness, doctors or nurses.  You have mechanics and laborers too.  In our land they only mean trouble, so you see they are all taboo."

When Truman mentioned the nation's atomic resources and the measures to use them to aid all mankind, the quoted response is: "That’s a step in the right direction, but a very short one."  The name of her planet was mentioned as 'Clarion', a name with some metaphorical significance although Truman made no mention of this.  Another quotation of Captain Aura is:

"You've asked of our greatest problem . . . and I've been thinking how best I could explain this to you.  It was, of course, learning how to control magnetic force."

Truman wrote: "I stayed aboard the saucer for about half an hour, and then my hostess signified that my visit was over, and I left.  No sooner had I stepped on the ground than the ship was gone."

In his account of the space people’s third visit on the night of August 18, the landing occurred about 200 yards away from where his truck was parked.

During this encounter Truman learned the captain’s name: 'Aura Rhanes.'  She made a remark that startled him: "I expect to be around for thousands of years, but the water in your deserts will mostly be tears."

She told him to feel her arm and shoulder to be convinced that she was a real woman.  While Truman attested that her appearance was youthful, after he told her about his wife and married daughters, Aura laughed and said that she herself was a grandmother and had two grandchildren at home.  Truman described listening to "a bit of a lecture" from the captain.

"We figure our lives and plan our actions far in advance, and every one of us knows how to do this.  We have not the problems you have, because we know what is right and want to do it.  The same could be true upon your earth.  God has been liberal in His blessings, and there is no dearth.  Your peoples could amalgamate and act in unison instead of constantly warring upon each other, and then you’d find your earth worth living upon.  Your deserts and plains could be transformed into gardens that would be like heaven . . .

After the third visit, Truman told some of his friends to write down some questions so that if he saw the saucer people again he could present the slips to Captain Aura Rhanes to answer.  This effort would result in some 'proof' of his account.  He recalled, "One girl even gave me a note written in French, asking if I could read French.  I said ‘no,’ and she replied laughingly, ‘Well, then, if I get an answer in French, at least I’ll know that you didn’t write it!’"

During the fourth visit on the night of August 25, Truman was working on the job and in his truck when suddenly there was a rap from outside and a familiar high pitched voice was heard: "Hello.  You know we are here."  Greeting Captain Aura, Truman recalled the realization that "The saucer can be anywhere before one is aware of the fact."  He asked her if he could visit the scow again and told her that he had some questions written down by his friends that he'd like to ask.

Aura smiled and nodded, turned and started walking back toward the saucer, with me loping along at her side.  She didn't run or trot along as one of our smaller women when they wanted to get some place in a hurry.  She seemed to be walking naturally enough, judging by the motion of her body.  But somehow she was making speed enough to cause me to hasten a bit to keep up with her.

He asked if the name of her planet, Clarion, might be known by a different name on earth, such as Mars or Jupiter.

She smiled and assured me that such was not the case, couldn’t be, in fact, since her planet would be entirely invisible from the earth, since it was on the other side of the moon.

One statement left him wondering how such a statement could possibly be true —

That, due to moisture, clouds, dust and light reflectors making an impenetrable screen in front of some of the planets which were viewed from different angles it seemed that the planet itself was there; but that it was not really; this reflected screen was there like the thing we call a mirage on earth, and a long way from the planet itself.  They had encountered the phenomenon many times.  Sometimes it was only a relatively short distance away, and sometimes a very great distance from the planet.

When he asked her about Mars, she said that it was inhabited by people "just like you and me" and that it was "a great manufacturing planet" where "Every home has a beautiful lawn where flowers and shrubs abound; each is a country estate and has five acres of ground."

After going outside the flying saucer, he saw Aura standing in the doorway and he began commenting about how much the saucer appeared to weigh.

"Not so much," she interrupted, laughing lightly.  "It's not too heavy for you to lift."

Gaping at her stupidly, I said, "It must be."

She said, "No it isn't.  Try it."

I did just that, feeling foolish as I bent forward, leaning my left side heavily against the rim as I took hold and tugged a little, thinking she was teasing me.  The scow seemed to raise up, as if by itself, about half a foot or so, and I let go.

Truman wouldn't present the letter written in French to the captain until the sixth visit.

Following the fourth visit, an incident occurred that would always remain unfathomable to Truman.  Finishing a work shift one morning at 3:30 a.m., he and Whitey went to a restaurant in Glendale, Nevada.  It was Whitey who first noticed the couple at the long front counter, whispering that he wondered if they could be the people he had heard described by him.

Truman recalled, "There, sure enough, with an escort, sat a woman whom I believe to this day was Captain Aura Rhanes."  He also recognized her male companion as the one who had escorted him aboard the saucer on the first encounter.  She was wearing the same apparel as before; however, there was the addition of dark glasses.  Whitey was hesitant about being introduced to them but agreed to stand outside near the door to see where they went upon leaving.

The woman responded "no" in an almost whispering tone to each of Truman's inquiries while her companion showed no reaction.  Truman apologized for disturbing them and went back to his seat.

The waitress whispered, "They are surely the saucer people you told us about."

"I thought so too," I told her.  "But it may not be.  The lady has on dark glasses and the man had a scar on his face."

The waitress whispered, "I noticed that too, but it is not a scar.  It is only penciled on."

As the mysterious couple started to leave, the waitress hurried back and said, "The lady told me to tell you that she knows you, and that she was sorry and yes is the answer to some of your questions."

I saw them only a step from the door, before I turned to pay my check.  When I turned back they were gone.  I rushed outside, and there stood Whitey puffing nonchalantly on his cigarette.

I yelped, "They’re not in sight. Where did they go?"

"They never came out," he said.  "Honest, Tru, not a blessed soul passed through that door until you came out."

Truman wrote to his wife about his bizarre experiences and she immediately responded.

She stated that she was dismayed and shocked to her foundations when she had read my letter.  Not only was the story and all its incidents, to her mind and knowledge, a total impossibility, but from what she had read in the papers, even the government had hooted at everybody who had tried to impress the public with these tales of seeing flying saucers and other weird things, and give out that either those persons were mistaken in what they thought they saw, or that they were crass liars looking for cheap publicity . . .

The next time he went aboard the saucer on September 5, Truman expressed to Aura that he was concerned his friendship with the visitors could result in trouble, death or captivity for them.  She assured him that her people would be able to stop any attack.  He asked how and she was quoted, "They would simply disappear."  She demonstrated by making his plastic flashlight disappear.  Aura explained that the flashlight was gone forever.

My lips were to dry to say the word aloud.  And I was too stunned even to know that I had stepped down from the saucer, forgetting to say goodbye, forgetting to look back and wave farewell to her.  I don't even remember walking away from the saucer, until I turned back to wave belatedly and saw that the scow was gone.

On Saturday, September 6, Truman was preparing to go to Las Vegas to visit Whitey and his family when a startling discovery was made.  He opened a package from the laundry to discover his new work suit had been ruined.  "The whole lower left side of the shirt and the rear top of the trousers was gone completely, as if they had been eaten by acid."  He realized it was what he'd worn on the night when he leaned against the rim of the flying saucer and 'lifted' it.

After the visit with Whitey concluded, Truman got in his truck and drove to a desert spot near Henderson about six miles outside of Las Vegas.  He wondered if the Clarionites would again be seen but there was no trace of the saucer for an hour.

I was about to give it up as a bad job, when I saw a vivid bluish flash from out towards Nellis Air Force Base.  It made a couple of complete circles, probably twenty or twenty-five miles in diameter, in just a couple of seconds.  And I knew it could not be a jet plane, for there was no sound whatever.  On the third pass it came directly over Las Vegas and almost seemed like it was going to stay there.


The color dissipated as they slowed down, and its location could only be guessed as to where the color had ended.  But within seconds the saucer was hovering almost directly over my truck.  And as they finally settled down, my truck was not over fifty feet away.

By the time they were disembarking I was out of my truck and standing by, waiting to be asked aboard.

One of the little men said to me, "Did you expect us to come down here?"

Aboard the flying saucer, he was escorted to Aura's cabin.  Truman asked her about the disappearing flashlight.  "You told me you never kill anybody but if you made an attacker disappear . . . doesn’t that mean he would die?"

Truman quoted Aura as responding to his inquiry by mentioning "teleportation":

"There is more to this than meets the eye.  It is impossible for me to explain to you so that you can understand.  And I’m not certain I ought, even were it possible.  Remember, I am speaking to you in a tongue quite foreign to me about matters entirely foreign to your comprehension."

After this explanation, he handed her the letter in French.  Aura read it and said, "It is only a family question and will be easy to answer."  He expressed his desire that she answer it in the same language and also give him 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 removed a piece of paper and a pen from somewhere in the desk and started to write.  Her pen went dry, surprising Truman as he’d come to think nothing could go wrong with the things possessed by the Clarion people.  She said, "On your earth, I am using your earth implements.  Our methods of communication are vastly different, and we have no needs for pens and paper.  But now my pen is empty."

He gave her his ball point pen so she could continue writing.  They talked further and he commented, "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.

This letter along with the Chinese answer was presented in the book in both the original and translated forms.  The Chinese writing was signed with only Aura’s name in English and a translation was also provided —

The French letter addressed topics of human nature and marital relationships. An English translation is provided along with the original French wording. Here is the English version as shown in the book.

As has been mentioned before: 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.  (article)

Truman reported that on the next occasion that the scow landed (seventh encounter on September 16), it was 25 yards away from him and "This precision landing at such speeds of approach is something to behold . . . the scow’s control is perfect, accurate and instantaneous."

During this visit, Truman presented to Aura the list questions he'd received from other people.  This resulted in a description of life on the planet Clarion.

 

"We are, I am grateful to be able to say. far in advance of your civilization in a great many ways."  She mentioned their churches, "which are always filled"; the first lessons to their children being much the same as ours, honesty and neatness and order.


I also got the impression that cooperation among all of their people is an inherent feature of their lives, and that poverty is unknown.


That their people are very busy living and learning, and not worrying what someone else has or does not have.


"Everyone enjoys themselves at home, and there's always plenty to do.  And I will say this to you, we are never alone.  The children always have places to stay and many toys."

She laughed and added, "And when they're through with them, they put them away in special cupboards or shelves.  Our young folks go to coeducational schools.  There is much for them to learn.  And I will tell you this, though it may be hard to believe, for education they really yearn.  We have fine teachers, courageous and brave and with the cooperation they always get, they never need to worry or slave."


"Yes, we have farms and farmers, experts who till the soil with methods which would surprise you, and raise many wonderful vegetables and fruits, some with which you should be familiar and other varieties unknown to you.  Our soil is fine and fertile and there are no weeds." 


"There are no traffic problems, no traffic jams.  Our roads are wide and very smooth and none of them are steep.  We can go anywhere as fast as we like in our little nutronic jeeps — the nearest word I can use to describe them.  We never have any accidents or crashes.  You could not hit head on if you wanted, thanks to our antimagnetic flashes."

Then she came to the question of power, and took a moment to think of how best to word her answer.  Then she said there was a third kind of power.

"The first is antimagnetic or gravitational; the second plutonic and the third nutronic.  This nutronic we use at home on Clarion."

 

During this visit, Captain Aura Rhanes reminded him, "Remember, we're going to take you on a visit to Clarion, to see our beautiful homes on the other side of the moon."  Truman reported that upon leaving the great silvery saucer gleaming in the moonlight, the door swung silently shut and then in the blink of an eyelid it was gone.

The next encounter occurred a week later and again Truman questioned Aura.  He asked if other objects seen in the sky could be ships from some inhabited planet other than Clarion.

"That is possible," she said, nodding thoughtfully.  "But I think it not too likely.  Your world is not of too much interest to the people of other planets.  However, of late years, since you’ve taken such an interest in atomic power, a few may be taking a fearful look at what you might in your ignorance do to harm others.  After all, if you blow up your world, it would set loose considerable confusion in the space around you."

He also again questioned Aura about life on the planet Clarion.  She reminded him how all her people were happy in their work and emphasized how education was the most important consideration; and that the flying saucers had never tried to shoot down or molest the airplanes of Earth.  She again declared that her people and their lives were peaceful and of good intention.
 

"Ours is a full time job, improving our own lives.  We have no national or interplanetary commitments or war pacts with anyone, as you have on earth.  And no group attacking Clarion, no matter how large, would have any luck or chance of either conquering or destroying us.  We are well protected, in ways which I cannot discuss with you."

She mentioned, "We have no jails or prisons, and no need for any."  Truman reacted, "Boy, Clarion sure sounds like heaven."

Aura told him about a machine that the people of Clarion used.  She called it a "retroscope."  He described what he learned.

In their homes they could review on this machine any event which had happened in any year and everywhere.  She added, "I know you do not have anything like it on earth, but we have had it from time untold."

The book delineates "a few very interesting statements which I believe some of our scientists might challenge":
 

She said that they could travel safely in their scow to any planet.  That it was sealed in flight.  That upon their arrival on any planet they can disembark as they do on earth and live exactly as we do here without any auxiliary breathing apparatus.  During flight, they have a conditioning apparatus on their scow which takes care of the distances and differences in atmosphere and pressures in between and that the statement "light years" in between planets has a different meaning to them than to the people on earth, just as the sun passes below the horizon each evening and you no longer see it until it evolves again.  Also, planets are hidden from eye view when the sun is not reflected on them for an indirect position in relation to the viewer.  Most of this is Greek to me.  I merely put it down here for what it is worth.

This was the eighth time he had gone on board the flying saucer.  Truman commented about the next visit on October 2, 1952:

. . . they arrived with suddenness, noiselessly and at apparently a predetermined time and location.


On this ninth visit, when I went aboard the scow, I wasn't sure at first glance that I was seeing the same captain.  For Captain Aura Rhanes was dressed differently than I had ever seen her garbed before.  She was wearing a light gray slack outfit, almost a uniform, when previously she had always been attired in those flaming red skirts and black blouses.  She looked very chic indeed tonight, with her fully developed small figure set off by the slacks, which appeared almost as if painted on her, so snugly did they fit.

I told her I was getting to anticipate their visits, and had written down almost verbatim all the things she had told me each time, as well as I could remember it from the brief notes I had made.  Also, I told her a joke or two that I had heard in the Desert Inn at Overton.  Nothing risque, but just something to get a smile.

She said, "We are visiting regularly on your earth, and enjoy it very much."  She added, "We enjoy your laughing mirth" . . .


She also made the statement that they were never in a rush up there on Clarion, and they always wondered why everything on earth appeared to be rushing or in a hurry to be finished.  She said it was a similar sigh all over the earth, people rushing madly in all directions.

Aura also described a wedding that she had attended:

The reception was held in the gardens of an ancestral castle, with our ocean for a backdrop.  The castle is built of the rarest marbles and really exotic woods.  The wedding united a lovely maiden and the handsome son of our master plumber.  The families and many friends of the bride and groom from the many planets assembled . . .

The account of this interlude concludes with the quotation of Aura: "Now we will all be around again sometime, just as we have before.  And my promise to you of a visit to Clarion is held like an open door."

On October 12, Truman again went aboard the flying saucer.  This interlude was devoted to a discussion with Aura about a future visit to the planet Clarion.  He recalled that during his first conversation with her she'd told him, "We never have troubles as someday you'll see."  Arranging the trip to her planet was affirmed for Truman and some of his friends:

She said, "Father John will be a fine leader for your group, for we know there must be reverent service.  I am sure he will want to go along.  He is well known in your town, and in cape and gown perhaps he will lead us all in a mass or two, and join with orations and songs to enlighten my crew.  Then there's your friend Bob, your friend from long past, you say.  Will he go on this trip?  We want you to ask."

I mentioned Hank.

And she said, "Invite him along.  Do you think he will go?  Whitey, too.  I believe he's your boss.  If he can't come along it will be his great loss.  Then there's that smiling Irishman, Johnnie, you've said is your friend.  If he will come along, our guest list will end."

On the night following that tenth visit or soon thereafter, Truman recalled:  "Aura dropped a small flare near the power line that skirts the hills northeast of Glendale.  It was a prearranged location, if all conditions were right, and I was driving up the road as it dropped.  But when I arrived the scow was not there."  He then found "a sizeable package, about a foot in diameter and probably two feet long" in the center of the Carp Elgin Road with the startling notation "TO TRUMAN FROM AURA."  He continued looking for some trace of the flying saucer without success and estimated Aura had seen his car had been followed by another vehicle and knew there might be danger to him from the people trailing him.
 

Later, when I opened the package, I found it to contain two flares with a note of instructions typed in English on how to use them.


You can imagine that I took good care of these flares until the opportunity should come for me to use them.  I was glad Aura had dropped them for me, when I knew I would be changing the location of my job from Nevada to Arizona.

In Arizona on the Saturday night of November 2, 1952, Truman set off one of the flares and eventually the saucer landed.  On what would be the eleventh and final visit recounted by Truman in Aboard A Flying Saucer, something Aura told him made him wonder.

She said, "I love to read and ride and swim and fish in lakes and rivers.  I like to dress up nice and dance.  But housework gives me shivers."


I laughed at that, saying, "And how familiar that remark sounds."  I was a bit thoughtful for a moment, wondering about her liking to fish.  As I recalled it, several times in previous conversations she had made the remark that Clarionites never kill anything.  Because of that I had supposed she meant that they couldn't kill or eat meat either, but since she now said "fishing" I concluded that when she made the remark she must have been referring to people

Aura mentioned: "A time is coming, but perhaps centuries away, when all planetarians may mingle, visit and stay, as some of them do now.  To you and some of your friends that privilege may come real soon."

Before escorting Truman out, she told him she would see him again when conditions were right.  He commented, "Naturally, since her other visits had been so frequent and so close together, it never occurred to me that the time might not be at hand."

Concerned about his wife Mary, he realized that she didn’t believe him.
 

Furthermore, my adventures had become common talk around Kingman, and people were taking a distant and disapproving attitude in their contacts with me.  So I decided finally that no one in the whole wide world believed my story or gave a continental whether it was true or not.  They wanted to continue living in the status quo, immersed in their dull little lives, not even curious about the greatest adventure ever made known to mankind.

 

At the end of February 1953, his job as a maintenance welder on the construction equipment at the Davis Dam concluded.  At a place in the desert that seemed like an excellent landing spot for the saucer he set off the final flare.
 

After it burned out I stood there, craning my neck and straining my eyes as I stared into the night sky, calling with all my mind for the scow from Clarion to appear.  But the hours passed and dawn came over the eastern horizon, with no sign at all to tell me that my signal had been observed.

Truman was disappointed that neither he nor his friends would "get to take the wonderful journey through space to the beautiful and heavenly planet of Clarion."  Truman returned to living in Redondo Beach, California.  He admitted, "But I am essentially a happy man, and I couldn’t stay in the doldrums forever."  He "couldn't resist the ever present urge to make Mary listen to me and be convinced."  He began talking about the subject of flying saucers one morning at the breakfast table.
 

Mary, who had been peacefully eating her breakfast, looked up sharply at me and almost snapped out her words.

"That's enough, Truman!  I don't want to hear another word!  The very idea!  You'll have my friends not only laughing at me, but thinking I'm living with a maniac."


"And is that what you think?" I demanded furiously.

"Never mind what I think!" she retorted.  "I'm not in a position where I can think.  I simply don't wish to be the laughing stock of the entire town . . ."

Later that day, "the mailman came and brought a letter which changed Mary's attitude a hopeful trifle, and changed my whole world for me."

The letter was an invitation from Professor George Adamski to visit him at Palomar Gardens near San Diego.  "He stated in the letter that he had heard about my experiences on Mormon Mesa with the flying saucer people, and that he was very excited and interested."  Truman agreed to be interviewed by Adamski and the tape recording that resulted was publicly distributed.
 

Truman acknowledged at the end of his book, "Now, it is up to you, the public, to decide for yourselves the meaning of it all. . . ."

He again wrote about his experiences in The Voice of the Planet Clarion (circa 1957 with a later "second printing/enlarged edition").  Messages From the People of the Planet Clarion is a 1995 reprint of The People of the Planet Clarion (1970) presenting information recorded by Truman Bethurum that was published posthumously.  He also self-published the booklet Facing Reality (1958).

In the Foreword of The Voice of the Planet Clarion, Truman wrote:

At the close of the first visit, the lady Space Captain Aura Rhanes told Truman to make the visit "known to the people of your world."  As Truman was a construction engineer, welder, machine operator and mechanic, and not a writer or poet, he was at a loss as how to best place his wonderful experience before the general public.

Captain Aura told him to write down the visits and what was said, in the manner in which she spoke. Upon his return home, after the second visit, he took his pen and started to concentrate.  To his surprise, the words flowed from the pen, as if Aura, herself, had hold of it.  The following pages are the result.

Here are excerpts from his poetic account of the first encounter with Aura and her crew.

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!

"We know nothing of doctors and nurses.

          You have mechanics and laborers, too.

In our land, they’d only mean trouble,

          So you see, they’re all taboo!"

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!"

"If the people on Earth could discover

          The secret of the power and control of our Scow,

They would try to take over and control the Universe,

          Then there would be an awful row!"


"We like the scenery you have on Earth
           And also enjoy your laughing mirth!
The jokes you have are something, too,
           And you know, to us, they're really new."


"We will be around again, sometime,
Just as we have before,
And my promise to you of a visit in Clarion,
Is held like an open door."

The last stanza quoted above may lead the reader to consider that the trip to Clarion spoken about by Aura could also be understood as reflecting an individual's advancement in spiritual understanding rather than being about a literally physical expedition.  The depiction of Clarion’s society was similar to that of Earth’s yet on a comparably utopian level in most respects.  One discordant detail is noticeable in a paraphrased quote of Rhanes describing a planned visit to Clarion for Truman: "My maid and I will keep house for you boys . . ."

A new interaction with Aura Rhanes for Truman is reported in the book, having occurred in Prescott, Arizona during the first week of December, 1955.  (The interlude is a subject of  a blog article about transcendental requests.)  Truman wrote:
 

Aura said, "I want you to find sufficient land in your area to promote and build a ‘Sanctuary of Thought,’ away from any populous center, high above your town, where the people of your Earth—all people—may come to visit in a healthy, peaceful atmosphere!  Where all may hear and be heard! 

"A SANCTUARY where religious beliefs, racial status, poverty or wealth will neither be an asset nor a liability!  A place where equality alone will be recognized!  Where only the laws of your Land, the laws of your Bible and the rights of your fellowmen, will be your accepted guide!"

This edition of The Voice of the Planet Clarion includes a section entitled "Some Poems Given under the inspiration of Aura Rhanes." Thirty-two poems are dated from November 3, 1954 ("A Worthwhile Prayer") to March 5, 1960 ("My Dog").  There are poems about peace, including "Friendship," while "My Code" is about ‘The Golden Rule.’  "Love" includes a statement about a noticeable anagram: "The start of 'EVOLUTION' . . ."  Among the articles included are "Fighting Communism With Common Sense," "Tips For Your Survival From Bombs And Fallout," "A Grain Of Sand," "The Sin Parlors Of America" and "Here Is Your Gold Mine."  The latter article concludes with the instruction:
  

Think.  Yes, Think, man, Think!  When you do you will find that you have discovered your Gold Mine!

The topics of the articles by Truman Bethurum remind the reader of the introspection toward the status quo that seems a natural predicament for anyone who has experienced some manner of paranormal revelation or initiation.  In the posthumous book The People of the Planet Clarion, details are provided about Truman's life preceding and following his flying saucer encounters.  His phenomenal experiences inspired a spirituality that compelled him to speak out against the social corruption that he’d observed over the years.  For example, the discovery of a "faked" newspaper photo stated to show the late dictator Mussolini and his moll hanging by their feet although her hair remained at her shoulders was among the reasons for Truman commenting, "Propaganda has absolutely no place in America.  The truth will set us free.  To censor the truth or hand out propaganda simply means that one or a few persons assume they are more intelligent than anyone else and that they alone are eligible or capable of knowing the truth and therefore force falsehood and deceit upon everyone else."

His life experiences as a young man included manual labor and construction jobs, buying a house near Bellflower and becoming a family man.   There was an account of an intuitive occurrence when he accepted a job in the San Luis Obispo area.  When there was no local housing available, Truman made a spontaneous inquiry and found weekly lodging: "I drove around town several times, and during each trip I seemed to end up in front of a certain house on Broad Street. Why this happened I don’t know, but Lady Luck must have been steering the car." 

One of the new anecdotes following the visits of the space people also related to an intuitive experience as Truman recalled being able to correctly call out the results of a sequence of target shooting from one hundred yards away.  The way he conceived of such a thing being possible was attributing this knowledge to Aura Rhanes again being in some manner of telepathic communication with him.  Something left unstated is the knowledge of 'God' as an omnipresent spiritual Oneness with each individual organism/entity/unit being a component.

The People of the Planet Clarion provided new information concerning his last meeting with Rhanes.  In December 1955, Truman was living in Prescott, Arizona.  He was "awakened in the middle of the night by AURA RHANES walking into my room from the parlor!"  He observed her to be wearing a heavy transparent plastic raincoat over her customary attire as she instructed him about promoting and building a Sanctuary of Peace.  Truman noted that during this interlude Captain Aura didn't rhyme any words of her conversation as during all the previous visits.  "She appeared to be deadly serious."

Truman became convinced that thoughts could change reality and this made him tremendously optimistic about the world’s social progress in the near future.  He estimated, "Since Earth is the newest and lowest in evolution, it is undoubtedly probable that all the other planets will assist us in our climb upward."  He also commented on news of impending war in what has been called the 'Holy Land.'  "A few minutes of constructive thinking could prevent such a catastrophe, but who, in charge of any nation, is big enough to see this possibility?"

One part of The People of the Planet Clarion that appears in a different typeface is offered as "Part Six: Predictions Of Coming World Events."  At the end of the previous chapter, Truman observed that "world conditions seem to have worsened somewhat.   I will comment on this later in the book."  There is no following chapter that is consistent with the format of the preceding ones.  Only a page long, this "Chapter XVI" begins "Ten psychic impressions received during Truman Bethurum’s contacts with the People from the Planet Clarion:" — the statements that follow reflect the theme of peace coming to the world in the near future.  This brief section of the book is an apparent distillation of some of Truman’s hopeful commentaries about the future. The wishful thinking of these ‘predictions’ included that children born in the ‘60s would never carry guns and that battleships and bombers would become obsolete.

Truman also explained in The People of the Planet Clarion the circumstances following his second conversation with Aura when he was told to write down in his own way what was discussed.  Back at his hotel room, Truman found that he was able to record his remembrances in rhyme: "It seemed as though someone was holding the pencil and actually forming the words."  Truman appraised, "I had never written any poetry and could not rhyme two words.  I just didn’t have it in me to do that — but now it’s different!"

Once when he was feeling ill, Truman was asked to autograph a book and "something took my pen and continued writing after I had signed my name!"  Part of this message attested:

We’ll realize before too long,

          That wars all follow a macabre song.

Nothing is gained from national duels,

          But the realization we were led by fools!

The final portion of The People of the Planet Clarion is the article "My Amazing Experience With Truman Bethurum" by author/artist Columba Krebs (Annabell Krebs Culverwell), who recounted the surprising things that happened (EVP/ITC) after Truman played for her a tape recording of one of his radio interviews.