Case Profile: Flying Saucer Contactee Orfeo Angelucci

 

 

The Secret of the Saucers (1955) by Orfeo Angelucci (1912-1993) is the chronicle of an unexpected cosmic initiation.  Upon publication, some of the events described were unprecedented regarding the flying saucer sightings that were making headlines at the time.  Informed by the 'space visitors' that he was "a chosen one," Orfeo self-published the newspaper-style publication 20th Century Times in February 1953.  Like other 'contactee' authors whose case study books would follow, Orfeo expressed intense emotions corresponding with a new cosmological perspective encompassing spiritual realizations.

Following the publication of Twentieth Century Times, articles about him were featured in issues of Mystic Magazine.  The magazine's publisher/editor was Ray Palmer, who would also be instrumental in the same capacities for Orfeo's case study book.  This article presents a selection of excerpts from all these information sources, favoring the initial publication that is extensively quoted.  Some typographical/grammatical errors have been corrected.  Orfeo's descriptions of his experiences may have been influenced by his own beliefs and perspectives.
 

With a per copy price of twenty-five cents and eight pages in length, 20th Century Times was planned to be the first in a series of newspapers.  A subscription was offered yet there would be no further issues.  The banner headline was "SAUCERS FIRST CONTACT REVEALED" and a boxed explanatory letter entitled "WELCOME SPACE VISITORS" appeared below it in the top section among two of the five columns.  The letter was signed "The Editor" with Orfeo divulging himself as editor/author of the testimonial.

Orfeo assuming the perspective of editor made some introductory statements: "The Space Visitors are friends.   The author will stand up for this to any limit, for I know one who has stepped from one of the crafts.  For a brief time this one contact, (one of us), had become as one of the visitors in a transcendent sense.  He literally existed 'between two worlds.'"

He commented about the expression 'flying saucers': ". . . the term misleads us from their reality and their character.  The material composing them is basically a plastic-suspended crystal, with functioning essentials.  Therefore it would be appropriate to call their ships CRYSTAL SHIPS; and the 'flying saucers' what they are, CRYSTAL DISCS.  By these terms we will realistically understand them."

After providing an overview of flying saucer accounts, the newspaper 'author' appraised the circumstances of the subject — Orfeo Matthew Angelucci.

In the presence of human weakness and clumsiness it would need be one powerless to make any trouble, regardless of his own temptations.  Yet he must be one to take the impact on his nervous system, and assure the success of the gentle event.  He must be one who could assume the cosmic magnitude of the revelations, yet a mere spark, which would surely and slowly blazon into an aurora.  The subject would need have some understanding of things in a cosmological order, and the relation of one thing to another.

Twentieth Century Times included information about Orfeo's youth.  He had a happy and carefree childhood although he was "always frail and in poor health."  His youthful trouble was diagnosed as "constitutional inadequacy."  While in the ninth grade, his family followed the doctors' advice for Orfeo to leave school and continue his studies at home.  He stated: ". . . I had always been intensely interested in all branches of science.  At home I was able to devote my entire time to the study of these subjects."

Orfeo married Mabel Borgianini in 1936 and a year later their first of two sons was born.

A little later I suffered a complete physical breakdown and was forced to give up my job [as estimator-salesman of his uncle's flooring and stucco company].  My weight fell alarmingly from 150 to 103 pounds and I was so weak that I could scarcely sit up.  After a number of medical examinations and complicated tests, the doctors decided I was suffering from a neurovascular disturbance.


For eighteen long months I was confined to bed.


. . . gradually I began to improve.  Finally I was able to sit up again and then to walk.

He returned home from the hospital "wracked with pain" yet "the terrible exhaustion and trembling weakness was gone . . . I insisted upon going back to work on my old job almost immediately." 

Taking courses in night school, Orfeo realized "science had discovered much, but there were still so many things to be learned; so many of nature's secrets yet to be revealed."  His particular interest to the field of electricity and electro-magnetic phenomena was explained: "During an electrical storm I suffered not only actual bodily pain, but mental perturbation and distress.  Thus I became well-versed in atmospheric static electricity."  As a young man, he was shocked by the suicide of his friend Frank, a fellow student in a Rutgers University bacteriology night course. 

Orfeo's pursuits included experimentation with fungi.  Penicillin had recently made its debut but it wasn't yet a well-understood subject.  One summer 1946 experiment was conceived "to see what structural changes would occur in the mold Aspergillus Clavatus in the upper atmosphere"; however, Orfeo's 18 "Navy-type balloons" broke away and sent the baskets with the molds aloft prematurely to end his experiment.  Then:

Suddenly, and seemingly from nowhere, an airplane must have been attracted to the ascending cluster.  It hovered and circled around them.  But what airplane could it be?  From where did it come?  It was once to the left and then to the right of the balloons, maneuvering in such graceful and effortless manner as no plane had done before.  Why did it always have a circular appearance, and no outline of airplane reveal itself?  Why, indeed?

Orfeo recalled, "I was obsessed with learning the true nature of the atom; discovering a cure for the virus diseases and especially for polio, that most ghastly of all crippling diseases.  I felt that a satisfactory explanation for the creation and operation of the entire universe was yet to be worked out."

In November 1947, Orfeo and his family began the journey by car from Trenton, New Jersey to Los Angeles.  After five months of sightseeing in California, there was a return sojourn to Trenton and during this period he published the thesis The Nature of Infinite Entities that included chapters on "Atomic Evolution, Suspension, and Involution," "Origin of Cosmic Rays," "Velocity of the Universe" and "A Supreme Intelligent Power."  Orfeo as 20th Century Times editor commented: "In the light of things to come, little did he know how amateurish his efforts were." 

After the family relocated to Los Angeles in 1948, he admitted that when flying saucers made headlines he wasn't interested and assumed the objects were some new type of United States aircraft being secretly developed.  The area being free of thunderstorms was one of the considerations that convinced Orfeo to make Southern California his permanent home.
 
Orfeo wrote an amateur screenplay "for a motion picture on space travel, our take-off for the moon supposedly at the turn of the century, 1999."  Orfeo would later as 20th Century Times 'editor' describe the plot of the script entitled "Worlds Are Mad Tonight."  

 

Supposedly the crew met another party on the moon, who were from another world, and gone there to meet "us" as they anticipated.   These other people would not reveal their origin or home, nor their actual names, but their leader said they could be called by various names, each according to an associated impression.  Names as Neptune, Mars, Leo, Orion, and the women such as Vega and Lyra.

They briefly divulged bits of their secrets of health and material progress to the men from earth. Their poise and general characteristics were superb far beyond those of the earth explorers.

Orfeo began to be employed at the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation plant at Burbank in April 1952.  After three months in the metal fabrication department, he was transferred to the Plastics Unit to work on radomes — plastic and glass housings for the radar units of the F-94C and F-94B Starfire jet aircraft.

As I look back now it appears that an occult power of some sort had neatly arranged every smallest detail in advance including the particular type of job I was in as well as the two men who were to be closest to me through all of my incredible experiences . . . But I did not know then what infinitely strange destiny fate held in store for me.

On May 23, 1952, Orfeo was working the late shift at Lockheed when he felt unfamiliar physical symptoms.

Between the shoulders persistent, prickly tension, as of electrical currents "leaking" out from the spine knob located there, into the system.  The right arm and hand felt it acutely.  The chest seemed to well-up in a hot sensation.  The heart palpitated and was barely at the edge of pain.  The back of the neck and the head became tense.

A thirst seized him, that no water could quench.  His eyes and forehead felt as though they would burst.

Yet in this entire syndrome there was not a sign of pain.  Never had his "nerves" before followed such a pattern of behavior.  It seemed that death was imminent.  But from what?  How and when?  Somehow he supported these with a measure of equanimity.  Nevertheless, he went outside for a time, to be near the exit gate in case he became worse.

By the end of the shift his symptoms had somewhat subsided but the deep thirst persisted.  Driving home, he experienced a new onslaught of symptoms.

Also, it now seemed that his ears had become numbed, and traffic was a muffled, half-real rhythm of autos.


It appeared that the night became brighter, as a twilight haze.

Directly ahead, and a little higher than the car, a deep red, very faint oval object came in view.  It was nearly a circle.  The length was about five times the diameter of the traffic light. 


. . . But something, someone had complete control and guidance of him, though he was at this time benumbed as to the actual situation, and felt associated with only this object, and its ethereal origin.

He soon drove off onto a dirt platform at the side of Forest Lawn Drive.

At once the red object eased off and away, descending some, then ascending and accelerating away.  It went as a meteor, but disappeared in the sky without leaving even a spark.  

Instantly something else took the place where it had just hurtled from.  Two efflorescent green discs, about 30 inches apart, and each about 30 inches in diameter were there, shimmering like two bubbles perfectly suspended in air.  They appeared to be in a state of extreme agitation.

Hardly two seconds had elapsed from the moment the burgundy color object disappeared, a most delightful masculine voice suggested . . .

"Come out here."

Orfeo stepped out from the right side door.  Unafraid as yet, he closed it and stayed near to the front fender unaware of his own movements.  There were only he and these two beautiful green discs.  All else was a dreamlike shadow in the background.  He knew of no world of existence past or present.

What followed is here set down in the best recollection.  It can easily be gathered as to who is doing the talking or thinking . . .

"Orfeo, beloved friend — Greetings."

" . . . Greetings"

"Do you remember us?"

"Yes . . . I mean, Yes, indeed."

"Your balloons in New Jersey — beloved friend."

(The voice was as mellow-dipped in the gold of the stars.  Who could know fear at this moment?)

"Yes, I saw your plane go with them."

"They saw, but saw not.  The world sees, but sees not.  This you know.  Orfeo, you are thirsty.  Ever so thirsty.  A bottle of drink for you."

On the fender of the car Orfeo "took up" a bottle, drinking the most satisfying "nectar" he had ever tasted, and thereby all symptoms and thirst vanished at once.  The voice then continued.

"You are still perplexed.  But the author of 'Worlds Are Mad Tonight' should not be.  Do you long to see Orion and Lyra?"

"Yes . . . oh, yes."

The space between the two circles gradually became visible, as of indirect lighting, and much as a television screen.

Two images emerged, from shoulders up.  It is difficult to say what color hair or eyes, or any such details existed.  It seemed that all hues and colors were blended in one superb end.  Here indeed was a man and a woman near a possible ultimate of perfection.  There were evident no trinkets, no vanities, no artifices.  These exquisite personages conveyed at once a message that penetrated, even though they were silent and seemingly immobile.  There was easily felt a kindness, understanding, experience, moderation, complete joy of the five senses.  Life in full.  All this and not a word spoken.

The only clue that they were projections of living people, and not photographs, was that their eyes were at times looking at different parts of Orfeo, not always directly at his eyes.  Yet no movement had he ever detected.  They appeared anxious to look him over, as in a review rather than as the first time they had looked upon one of us.

These moments seemed interminable, though it is doubtful that more than three minutes elapsed during this projection.  And a world of thoughts were exchanged in complete silence.  He knew his were already known to them.

To think that such an experience was permitted to him.  He felt ashamed, as a criminal in the presence and sight of innocent ones.  Certainly he was far from deserving this.

They faded away, and there was a feeling that he and his whole environs were being swept with them, for he had lost contact even with the two circles on each side of that "screen."  But there they were, with an emptiness again between them.  Again the voice:

"Orfeo — you are so confused but the ROAD WILL OPEN.  Write again the 'Nature of Infinite Entities.'  The road will open."

"I will.  I know I can — very soon.  Is it correct?"

"Enough.  Beloved friend: the enemy is formidable, and prepares (as yet classified information) . . . Again, the road will open."

"Thank you, great sir."  (Orfeo waited for him to emerge in view.)

"In all the world we came to three likely subjects to touch.  One from India.  One from Rome.  And one from Los Angeles."

"Thank you, sir."  Orfeo felt a fraternal belonging, as if the fine essences of man were one and that he had at this moment stepped over that threshold.

"Beloved friend — goodnight."

Nothing more.  Silence and quiet.  The two green circles faded perceptibly.  There was a sudden darkness as the night was night again. 

The Road Opens

He was alone; there was now nothing as he remained momentarily looking at the spot. This time a very faint "swoosh" rose and died at the spot where a moment ago a glowing promise was alive.  It was 2:00 o'clock in the morning, and as though nothing had happened, the city lights and all surroundings were again normal.

Two small green lights appeared in the northern sky, in the same location and proceeding in the same direction as the burgundy red disc had soared off in. They, too, suddenly accelerated and disappeared.  Orfeo had the strange feeling of now not being at all associated with the phenomenon.

The realization of being here along, for no apparent reason, and no vivid recollection of what must have been a "realistic and orderly dream," opened up seven seas of bewildering fear upon him.

He rushed into the car . . .

   

Mystic Magazine illustration 

The next day, there was the realization for Orfeo that his understanding of reality had completely altered.  It was challenging to express in words.  So momentous was what had occurred that he wondered if he was at the center of a "bizarre one-man universe."  During his day-to-day life, he noticed some unusual incidents, such as sighting a "beautiful aurora-like spectacle seen in the sky."  One afternoon "a droning from overhead" was heard that was "steady, unvarying for half an hour."  He mentioned having throughout the month of June "a half-serious urge to determine whether the peculiar coincidences were fact or of an illusory nature.  If any material reality was in any way associated with circumstances, he would signal himself for more comprehensive contacts.  Was he under 'constant observation?'"

In July Orfeo reacted to media reports of 'flying saucers': "The skies seemed to open with a barrage of continuous aerial displays, and many people became convinced of interplanetary visitations, excitedly expecting a landing or some contact.  Others attributed the phenomena to fulfillment of spiritual Prophecies, while others to harbingers of woeful events.  And there were even those who cared not one way or the other."

Orfeo's second transcendental nocturnal experience occurred during that summer of 1952, 60 days after the first.  As an introductory note, it may be important that the reader understands that Orfeo's wife was manager of the snack bar at the Los Feliz Drive-In and he regularly helped her there.  Her brother owned the drive-in and had also built a residential complex nearby where the Angelucci family lived.  With the excerpt from 20th Century Times that follows, there were a couple small spots that made words illegible on the columns of page 4 so brackets in the following excerpt indicate estimated words.
 

On July 23, 1952, Orfeo failed to report for work.  He just did not feel up to it.  At 8:30 in the evening he walked from his house to the snack bar of the drive-in theater.  He felt relieved in company.  The young women attendants were speaking of flying saucers, and how their husbands would like to see even one.

Orfeo joined in the conversation, which eventually turned to a humorous and lampooning slant.  There was laughter.  Laughter which for him would soon come to an abrupt end.  Yet, for a short while he had joined the multitudes, normal people, and saw things in their light.  Then he finished a cup of coffee and started back for home, to retire for the night.

This theater has two screens, facing opposite ways, and the walk took him through the empty side facing southeast.  At the other end is a lonely spot, where the Glendale Boulevard and Hyperion Avenue bridge spans overhead.

Halfway through the lot Orfeo felt his upper chest and throat well-up and relax rather pleasantly, and seemingly in control by someone else, something.  But there was not the slightest sense of pain nor impending doom.  At once a voice, coming from his own vocal cords, reprimanded, citing shame on him, vet in a musical aria, said, "O-Hee-O."  It was loud, smooth, gentle, and suggested a latent talent.

He smiled it off to himself; nevertheless his thoughts went immediately to the recent events, the superior beings, and eternity.

At the end of the lot he opened the corrugated metal gate and closed it again behind him.  He was now alone, with the overhead concrete bridge ahead.  Beyond that, so close, yet soon to be so far, the eleven unit apartments, where he resided.  Here he would soon be asleep.

There seemed to be a hazy, misty obstruction between him and the arch of the bridge just ahead.  It was barely visible.  It was like a reproduction of a ghostly Eskimo igloo, but so transparent it hardly seemed real, so like a half-bubble of soap, with the bottom curving outward, much like a turtle.

Almost at once a section seemed to become dark and spread out, as an inverted cone.  The interior, now translucent and more real was revealed.  As if in a trance, Orfeo walked to the aperture, hesitated a split second, and knew there was no alternative but to enter.

There was no sign of life, nor sound.  All the recent events became realities in his consciousness again.  Once more this was the only world that actually existed.  Come in, be at home with people he knew but saw not.

A pearly, comfort chair on the far side cozily suggested he sit here; come home.  It was a pearly interior, all pearl, shimmering and tending to recede from view constantly; this dome-like, utterly empty room.

He sat down, feeling very secure and comfortable, as though he had done this before.  But what would happen now?  Was it perhaps to meet someone "well known" to him?  How could he be so self-confident in such a situation; developing so smoothly in less time than it takes to tell it?

As he sat there the wall itself seemed noiselessly to expand and close the aperture where he had just entered, closing toward the left.

Orfeo felt completely cut off from his family and friends.  Yet he felt secure, and in the hands of friends who could overcome any situation for him, and who had purposes to all that they undertook.

All sound was now shut off.  The pearly interior allowed a trickle of light here and there, giving the inside a twilight, satisfying glow.  He felt engulfed by a pure and esthetic environment superb.

A low vibrant hum, more felt than heard, took on a crescendo and he felt gently "pushed" against the comfortable chair; pushed by every inch of his body, as though his body were pushing backward beyond any control on his part.

The interior became dark, as though some great shadow engulfed the entire dome.  The floor seemed  as solid as if it were the ground itself, vibrating deep, hidden currents of the earth, in a gentle, constant flow.  The sensation of push against the chair by his body did not increase.  But neither did it cease.

Reason began to take form, and a grip of fear was beginning to overpower him, when an orchestration, of one of his favorite songs gradually arose.  It was "Fools Rush In" where angels fear to tread; an exact transcription of "The Voices of Walter Schumann" [album].  The strains had an orienting effect on Orfeo, for it sent a thread of association. Memories returned to him in a conglomerate sensibility.

Soon the interior lighted up softly again.  Orfeo noticed how his soiled work clothes, which he was wearing, stood in bold and ugly relief in this exquisiteness.  He felt that his entire body and soul were equally unfit to be privileged such divine, visual, realistic a dream.

He felt so well and comfortable that he gave but scant thought to the possibility of the air diminishing, or becoming toxic.  He gave little thought to anything, but the developing of things at hand.  The soothing music played on ethereally as his body seemed to push back on the chair perpetually.  His thoughts were not of the past, nor of his wife, sons, or other relatives, but of the immediate present — and minutes ahead.

The musical rendition neared its end.  What then?  Was he to spend an eternity in this pearly igloo?  The body now seemed to gradually relax its backward push against the seat, until it ceased.

At the same time the music came to an end.  The smooth vibration of the floor also slackened some, but this did not stop completely.  It was surely evident that some motive power was housed somewhere in the floor.  Orfeo thought of the incident on Forest Lawn Drive, and that perhaps he was carried there again, to continue the "dream" to a more tangible comprehension.  There was complete quiet, and fear was impossible under the circumstances.

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Then something turned smoothly, [moving the] chair or the craft, and came to rest when his position was about a quarter circle from his previous position.

Again an inverted cone aperture spread until it was approximately six feet wide at the base.  This has spread from left to right.  The sight revealed was one of awe.  A tremendous, brilliant rainbow haloed around a huge mass of darkness.

Again the crystal craft or the seat turned to the left, and a new aperture appeared, slightly to the right of the first, adding about three more feet to the base of the previous opening.

His head and eyes became tense.  There was a return of the now familiar symptoms and the dark mass became lighter, a beautiful twilight of blue intensity.  The full circle of rainbow was now in view, except a bit at the bottom, which was obstructed by the floor line.  A sight-defying description this was: the whole earth stood before him.  The whole mass seemed to shimmer, in spite of the dark hue.  And the Western Hemisphere of the globe was discernible.  Indeed, the radiant rainbow was the scope of our atmosphere.

For a moment Orfeo suspected that he was dying; that all this was the final upheaval and billowing away of life.  Yet it was constant and sustained, a phenomenon that would not be to an ebbing life. 

THE TRANSFORMATION

Furthermore, there were none but normal physical sensations, except the faint but familiar symptoms, and memories of associated events of recent days vividly conscious.

In all this a voice arose — the voice superb.

"Beloved Friend, see your home, Earth.  Is it not a bosom of peace and beauty?  You would not be concerned from here.  What occurs there is the concern of them only — and you."

For many years Orfeo had been unable to come to tears.  But at this point they came from an overwhelming swell of emotion that seemed to purify and cleanse; transforming him from a hardened reasoner into a more feeling individual.

"Weep, Orfeo, for we join you at this moment."

There was a slow turning to the right, until the earth was removed from the scene.  At the aperture there was now a teeming mass of stars — seemingly so close that they might be but a few feet distant.  Large and small, single and clustered, red and amber, and many hues.  It seemed that at any moment one would suffocate in this closeness; this fairyland luminescence.

Eyes still wet, Orfeo thought Expert hands were behind all this, and would see him safe even beyond and above their own safety.  Meteors were nowhere seen or evident.  In all this setting his immutable awareness of the Supreme God dawned to comfort him.  Could God at this moment be conscious of these incomprehensible events?  Would God for even a fleeting moment center attention on so insignificant a living being?  After all, Orfeo had learned that even every hair of everyone were counted and preordained, and each atom and molecule was registered and predestined.  God seemed so close and so active here, yet concerned with all else but him.  He felt secure.

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Just then, a huge ship, like a dirigible came emerging from the right.  It ignored the stars and bodies "in its path" and proceeded forward.  It seemed that the stars and bodies gave way without moving to its progress.  It was indeed as a large dirigible, but flattened at the bottom.

It is difficult to conclude as to the actual material of its structure.  It appeared to be metallic, yet could very likely be of a crystal-metal-plastic composition.  Its light control properties definitely suggested perfect crystal alloyed throughout.  To all appearances the size of the craft was not less than 900 feet long, and at least 90 feet high.

As he pondered this "close-in" universe, and the elegant ship, the voice spoke again.  It was now accompanied by music that could have originated from all space, from every remote recess of space.  In full view was this half-ethereal ship, and it suggested that all sound and action emanated from its interior.

"Brother of a man.  Ask no longer why we have chosen you.  Each is divinely created.  But a child shall lead, and the meek are strong; dirt is clean, and sickness as but a gem.  Atheism is a frigid end; hypocrisy an unseen venom.  All is one; bad, good; evil, holy; past, future.  You are on one side or the other, always.  We know where you stand.  Why, Beloved Friend, are you apathetic and inactive?  You, a chosen one.  Who is so mildly cosmic; you, so expendable.  Is your life a flash away as nothing?"

"No!  Please, no.  I am not such a one who cares not.  My very life is yours.  I beg to see you, Neptune, or Orion.  Give me health, and there is nothing I cannot accomplish for you.  Do this.  Let me forever feel as I feel now.  Ask the Almighty this in my behalf."

But the ship began to move leftward, and upward.  One porthole after another opened in rapid flash successions as it ascended, until three complete flights, as decks, became radiant from indirect lighting, with only pearly bits of an interior showing.  Nothing more.

At the bottom, two large rotors, one near each end of the great craft, revealed themselves: deep, radiant green color emanating from both rotors.  How well Orfeo remembered their identical forms on lonely Forest Lawn Drive.  His own craft began a leftward turning.  Again the tremendous rainbow came in view, and the earth within it.  Puffs of faint light dotted the earth, cities in the night.

Suddenly three "flying saucers" darted from nowhere, and sped forward, coming to rest in fixed positions.  At once it was apparent that these positions were what would be Capernaum, Moscow and Washington.  And from the one at Washington flew out two more; one coming to rest over Rio de Janiero, the other over Los Angeles.  The one at Los Angeles gave birth to another, which settled over Tokyo.  Six beautiful discs, with green main centers, and amber light halo fringes.  The scene was one that mythology would blush to dare contrive up.  There came no sound from anywhere.  All was quiet as could be.

In this solitude and glory Orfeo formed his own conclusions, his own befogged interpretations, with a power not of his control.  All the crystal discs and their placements seemed to delineate a message easily decipherable, telling more history than all our compiled data.

Los Angeles.  Oddly he felt that he had been there before, not too long ago.  That he had left that city a little more than half an hour before was not in his recollection.  And at once, by some remote control, all the crystal discs sped away into invisibility; except two: one at the point of Capernaum, the other at Los Angeles.  And the grand voice returned:

"The road you have explored for your own satisfaction has opened.  Widen it as it will be widened for you.  Strain to think.  Nature of Infinite Entities must be fully developed.  The enemy does not wait.  Dream on.  But act — act, Orfeo."

"I will."

"A privilege divine has been yours.  A power shall be yours."

"Thank you."

"We love your home.  Find it interesting, and also love it for what you now know."

The crystal disc at Los Angeles went the course of the others.  There was only the one at Capernaum, and the smaller aperture on the right of the craft began to close noiselessly, as the velvet voice resumed.

"Home, beloved, tortured one.  Home, Orfeo.  And yet one Question remains in you; dreamer-doubter.  We know.  You ask if the Star of Bethlehem was.  Now you know.  It was — it never extinguished."

The large aperture closed rapidly.  Again his body seemed to push delightfully against the back of the seat.  And the strains of the Lord's Prayer, as we know it, filled the dome.  In this magnificent setting Orfeo felt as a worm of a human being; dirty, unkempt, and sinful in the fullest sense.

Ah, indeed!  He was chosen because he was the most expendable; the most useless in the eyes of destiny, not the most loved.  Yet these beings spoke as though they loved him deeply.  How much must they love the others?

The strains of the Lord's Prayer seemed to wash away these unhappy reflections of the conscience as rapidly as they arose.  Through the strains the voice spoke:

"Beloved friend, we baptize you by all the spectral forces we know."

A white beam flashed through the pearly wall of the dome craft and seared Orfeo just above the stomach and below the left breast.  There was a flashing pain: then partial oblivion, in which he could only remember the musical ensemble.

The prayer ended, but a new strain of countless violins seemed to envelop all space, while all the past events flashed vividly in his remaining consciousness, in every fiber of the body.  This was like Eternity itself.  It would be a blessing if he could remain in such a catalepsy forever, he felt.

Gradually the music subsided and equally he seemed to wake from the half-sleep.  The push of his body against the back of the seat also eased.  Again there was a turning, apparently back to the original position.  Then quiet and still, but for the soft vibration of the floor.  The wall again opened in the same inverted cone shape.  There were the environs of the theater grounds, as though he had never moved from the position when the craft had left.

"Goodnight."

These were the last words from the voice.  Orfeo knew he must leave: reluctantly, slowly, from this "home."  He walked out and circled to the right of it, and for an instant his glance at left the craft.  As he looked for it again it was now in the air, as a faint half-bubble, hardly visible.  Suddenly it was not there at all.  He looked for even a sign of it; and then a "flying saucer" appeared in the northeast sky, a red disc turning instantly to deep green, and soared off into seeming eternity.

He felt an urge to go to the snack bar just ahead, and talk with someone.  But talk of what?  How could he make sense?  Home was the best place; to sleep, a fitful, restless sleep this night. . . .

Orfeo realized he was "a transformed man" after the experience.  He realized there was "new ability of clear and boundless thought" and a "greater ability to write completely without notes or outlines."

He attempted to inform government officials.

Yet the only course of action seemed to be to discuss the "preposterous matter" with the proper authorities, even if they would merely think that something had snapped in his cranium.

Over the telephone he spoke with various organs of our defense.  Two offices took no stock at all.  It was a great relief to him that the others, the important ones seemed to be very much interested.  But he continued to drive home the message to various official and nonofficial organizations to be sure it would not die out.  (The details, obviously cannot be divulged herein.)  Subsequent news items revealed that the information had a resounding impact, or that our own systems had come upon some secrets of the enemy. 

Orfeo witnessed some further bright objects in the sky yet the occasions didn't offer any apparent personal significance.  He would eventually express at times having a feeling of futility: "He wanted to blazon out the reality of space visitations.  But he was powerless; disbelieved by all on earth, and assisted by none of the visitors."

The third night of uncanny experience was then recounted.  The date was August 2, 1952.  Orfeo was again helping in the drive-in theater snack bar.

At 11:00 p.m. he walked outside and spotted a blinking light over a hill to the west.  He called those who would come out to see it, as it remained motionless in the sky above a hill.  It was not so spectacular, and the others losing interest soon returned to their respective places.  Orfeo remained fixed upon it, while some said it was merely a street lamp or some helicopter hovering motionless in the air.

Then the light began to move away.  He called them back, saying, "There goes your street lamp."  To give the benefit of the doubt to the doubters in this instance, let us write it off as a helicopter.  Again Orfeo felt so disoriented that he decided to leave and go directly home, for no apparent reason.

The dark archway of the bridge seemed large, yet welcoming to him because of the memories of it.  There was a certain eternal communion here, and he enthralled to it as he came under.

Just beyond was home, comfort and rest.

A man was coming from the opposite way in the darkness toward him.  Orfeo felt an urge to stop him, talk with him, to unburden himself, no matter what the stranger might think.  It suddenly struck Orfeo that this man came from a corner which had no entrance, but that he had perhaps been waiting.  Before he could become alarmed, the stranger spoke, without halting his progress:

"Greetings, Orfeo!" It was the beautiful voice.  "And greetings to you, good sir . . . I mean, uh . ."

"You probably recall one, Neptune?  Or do you not?  Come and you will see—and hear."

"Neptune!  You have come to give me health and strength?"

"Come, beloved one.  You and I must give, not receive."

Orfeo automatically turned and followed Neptune, who had not hesitated nor once looked directly at him.  Yet there was complete joy and serenity radiated from Neptune, as one who had found a long lost brother.  As though he were a power station the same feeling was transmitted to Orfeo.  Both their steps were clearly heard by Orfeo as they walked through the graveled yard, and came upon a sharp bend of Glendale Boulevard.

In this more lighted area Neptune's apparel at once struck Orfeo.  It was one uniform shade fitting in perfect tailoring.  There seemed to be hardly a joint or seam.  Never; not once did the whole suit or person fully emerge, but rather it seemed to waver, spots appearing and disappearing, as the surface of a lake in the moonlight, gently rolling.  Only the face and hands were immobile.  Traffic went past and turned on the sharp bend here, and headlights were fully cast upon both as they proceeded forward.  Orfeo wondered what Neptune looked like to these folks going by.

At this point the nature of this presence suddenly dawned on him; and again he felt removed from earthly reality.  It was only Neptune's words and personality that kept Orfeo from breaking as they proceeded down the sharp concrete slope of the Los Angeles River.  Near the bottom Neptune suggested they sit, with a mere gesture.  Then he spoke:

"Many see us as you do, and we have not even disturbed them.  Your enemy prepares yet.  Millions in your land will fight to the end, for your land and ideals.  Millions of the globe will fight to the end for eternal ideals.  Are these worth to sacrifice for?"

"Yes, indeed.  And I will give my life itself, always."

"Not enough.  Your life must forever give its fullness."

And for the first time he turned full gaze on Orfeo.  It was a resplendent face.  Eyes that knew joy, sorrow, and understanding beyond any of his own.  Orfeo felt stupid, unkempt, and utterly helpless.  He felt again as a hypocrite these moments.

"We also have differences, but not fundamentally.  I have broken a divine code, and it shall be amended by me so it will not have been broken at all.  The code of hands off; on interference in the ways of earth.  And you shall see amends made, and my repentance.  I would shake your hand, but in token it must not be.  Also, by having already gone too far, we pay by receding an equal degree.  Thus, none will believe you, nothing will occur in greater speed than had nothing happened between us.  The signs and the ways of God are for those who discern.  But they are immutable, and will not change their substance or time."

"Beloved Neptune.  My life, my blood, my comfort, my everything shall be regarded by me as to be given in a way to cause no added shame to me, and glory to you; if it could be so."  Orfeo hardly knew he was speaking in Neptune's own contagious manner.

"We have made but one contact, Orfeo.  It must not fail for any weak link.  None other can be made at the time.  All you know is so, and all doubts leave in that trickle of water there.  The road is opened; walk it as you will.  Your demise is also mine.  But I smile on you with love for your enhanced numbers.  Millions that will rise, and meet the great battles, with but a shred on their side for victory."

(This was a speaking of a double essence.  No one would believe on the one hand, and Orfeo was to reveal the true nature of the visitors on the other hand.  Only minds attuned to the innermost secrets of Nature could gather their full portents.)

Neptune gracefully extended his hand to hold Orfeo's.  Orfeo recoiled his own away.  And Neptune smiled on him as he spoke:

"You and I, as one; see?  We would not break the code.  How you have transformed.  Our trust rests in you.  Did we not baptize you by neutral functions?  You are an apostle in that degree that you will be.  And you will cleanse me from any contact with this ground, or I die unhappy.

"Think back, beloved friend.  In May you ceased many pursuits, and became fixed as another person.  Think back, and therein is your light."

As a flash, Orfeo saw what he meant.  His pet "Mohara Desert Club" had been abruptly dropped by him in May.  Interest in science, and any plans for the future had ceased to exist.  Yet he soon was to be completing the Nature of Infinite Entities.  His energy ray description sent to the government had  been forgotten.  Yet this could be perfected into unlimited ranges.  All but the "flying saucers" had been forgotten by him.  Now he could see the meaning of Neptune's words, that he, Orfeo, knew certain things, and that these were so.

The ether exists, then.  We can go forward to undreamed of ends.  Indeed, to be in the future as Neptune, Orion, Lyra.  At this point Neptune continued as if reading every detail of Orfeo's thoughts.

"Of God, and the ether, we too can only hypothesize; like children.  Children are new people.  Think always on them.  There is the light.  For we shall soon go back to insignificance from your earth, yet never far away; to return, but not to you, beloved friend."

There was a slight pause.  Then he spoke again:

"I am thirsty, Orfeo, and it is your turn."  He smiled warmly.

"Oh, yes, great sir!  I will get you some — uh, some refreshment.  Wait here."

Neptune smiled as Orfeo went off.  On the other side of the archway he glanced back to see if Neptune was comfortable, for he had left him unceremoniously.  He had arisen and was looking toward Orfeo, who then climbed up the steep concrete bank.  From the top he glanced again, and in the center arch there seemed to be an "Igloo" of haze.  Only eyes that had once seen and become familiar with such could have made out the crystal craft, as though suspended under the ceiling of the arch.  Now he was in a hurry, and it was difficult to control his impatience in the nearby store.  With two bottles of lemon soda he hurried back.

The craft was gone from under the arch, and soon it was clear that Neptune also had disappeared.  It was not too surprising, for Orfeo had such a premonition when he had left for the refreshments.  The place was now desolate, and the loneliness heavy.  He glanced in the sky expectantly, and was rewarded by the appearance of a faint, small green light, which proceeded away and southeastward, along Riverside Drive.

Orfeo sat down, feeling somewhat deserted, and with a train of endless questions.  What was his true name?  Where were they from?  Why not leave something tangible with him?  How could he now go on alone?  Why did he have no one to turn to who would believe him?  How could their discs, ships, and any of their manifestations be so adroit and swift in our atmosphere?

After the description of the third contact experience, Orfeo reflected about the astounding turn of events.  As he saw media reports about flying saucers, he recalled the statement "the road will open" and attested: "Indeed it had.  But it would not open as wide as Orfeo hoped."  He also thought: "Never mind what people would think or believe.  Go on — write . . . He was an expendable, whose best had now been relegated to the past . . . the next few days were fruitless of any events.  Yet the reports of 'flying saucers' continued thick and fast, and much lampooning accompanied them."

On August 18th, the account of the night's events included Orfeo at the snack bar hearing the exquisite voice in a "low and controlled" tone sounding "just overhead" while uttering "Farewell, beloved friend" with many cars and people around.  One of his sons and Bob, a drive-in attendant, seemingly heard the words also as they asked Orfeo what he'd said.  "Orfeo pretended he was merely feeling fine in this atmosphere, and had started to sing.  Then looking up, he saw a 'meteor' again, in the horizontal dash, and disintegrating as two had done before." 
  
As Orfeo would later acknowledge in his case study book, not even his wife supported him as he prepared to publish 20th Century Times during the holiday season.

Orfeo and Mabel Angelucci

"But, Mae . . ." I'd remonstrate. "Don't you understand; these things really happened to me!  It is my duty to tell what I know!"

"And just what thanks will you get for it?  Do you want to be ridiculed, laughed at and considered a crackpot or a psycho?  Think back!  Remember how everybody talked when you first told that wild story about a trip in a flying saucer.  What did it get you but ridicule!  Even if it did happen, Orfie, forget it!  Just forget the whole thing for your family's sake.  Let's be happy and enjoy life."

Orfeo admitted that he let things drift for some time but in a matter of weeks he felt ashamed for having failed the trust that Neptune had placed in him.  "More and more every day I realized how selfish I was in thinking first of my family and myself.  Finally I knew there was no alternative for me.  Come what may, I had to go ahead with publication of the facts of my experiences . . . I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw the paper for I felt that I had satisfied a debt."

He placed an ad for a year's subscription to Twentieth Century Times in the February St. Louis-based science fiction stencil-typed fanzine Fan To See, Vol. 1, No. 2 edited by Larry J. Touzinsky.  
 

In Twentieth Century Times after Orfeo as editor related his own contact experiences, he pondered the technology of the visitors in relation to "Their Power and Structure":

The crafts and missiles of our space visitors have one outstanding characteristic.  They are impelled and controlled by "tapping into" universal forces.  Even to us these forces are beginning to reveal themselves in our slow trial-and-error, and theoretical progress.

One section of "Postscript" analyzes "The Contact's Dilemma":

Their actual names were never even alluded to.  Their place of origin is a complete mystery as yet.  The age of the visitors is not known.  The maximum velocity of their ships in voyage can only be conjectured.


Within the limits of physics, their capabilities appear to be magical indeed.

The "Postscript" also acknowledges "Fantastics Omitted":

In the text some incidences were omitted because they may be considered as completely impossible.  Orfeo decided to include them herein, postscript, to make the narration complete.

One of these concerns the coin like piece of "metal" on the floor of the craft as he sat there.  This object was about the size of a silver dollar, and Orfeo knew it was meant for him to pick up, perhaps as a memento.  The object seemed warm in his hand, and it felt active and "alive."  It gradually diminished in size, and completely disappeared before he reached the ground again.


It was on the morning of October 16, 1952.  At 4:30 he was awakened by a shrill humming, and high frequency vibrations which seemed to emerge from the metal bed springs themselves, and from the ceiling, so that he felt sandwiched in between two poles.  This remained perfectly constant for twenty minutes, and was accompanied by a high frequency earth tremor.  Both his wife and a neighbor young lady were aroused by this episode.

Orfeo as editor observed that this was the first time that "the sound of the 'flying discs' motion was for the first time to Orfeo audible.  It was terrific beyond description."

He continued on the job at Lockheed and, as told in his book, ". . . because THEY had requested that I tell Earthlings of all my experiences, I told many persons about my trip in the flying saucer.  Nearly everyone laughed and ridiculed me . . . A little later I began giving weekly talks to small groups of interested people about space visitors."

 
As described in the book, during the latter part of October Mabel visited her parents in New Jersey.  She returned home with them accompanying her so that they could vacation in California.  Entering the busy Greyhound bus depot to meet them at 6 p.m., Orfeo was shocked to see Neptune standing in front of him facing the newsstand.

He glanced up and his dark eyes told me that he was expecting me.  He was dressed in an ordinary dark business suit and carried a brief case under his arm.  A dark blue felt hat with snap brim shaded his eyes.  And he appeared as real as any person in the depot!  After the sudden shock of surprise I started forward to greet him, but a strong telepathic command stopped me.  I stood hesitant looking at him.  He stood up, facing me and I could not help noticing how tall, extremely handsome and distinguished he appeared in the hurrying throngs of people.  He was not smiling; in fact, his face was almost stern as though he might be angry.  I wondered what I had done wrong.  I completely forgot Mabel and the folks waiting for me.

His intent gaze never left me.  Stalling for time I walked over to the newsstand and picked up a magazine and thumbed through it.  I had received the definite telepathic impression not to approach him; thus I waited for him to speak to me.  But he did not.  Staring blankly at a page in the magazine I waited for further telepathic communication.  It came!  The gist of the message was: "The last time you saw me, Orfeo, I was in a less objectified projection in your three-dimensional world.  The purpose being to give you some idea of our true aspect.  But now tonight you see me fully objectified.  If you did not know who I am, you could not tell me from one of your fellows.  Tonight I am no half-phantom, but can move among men as an Earthman.  It is not necessary for you to speak to me; you have gained the understanding.  You know now that we can appear and function as human beings."

I looked gratefully into his eyes and as in my previous encounter with him, I felt again a unity of being as though I were momentarily released from the bonds of individuality.

Just then Mabel and the folks spied me.  As in a dream I heard them call to me as they came rushing over to me.  Like an automaton I kissed Mabel and hugged Mom and Pop.  All the while they were talking and holding my hands.  I was going through the motions of greeting them, but I was still so stunned that I scarcely knew what was happening.

Together we all walked toward the exit and I noticed that Neptune was following a short distance behind us.  When we reached the door I was about to open it when Neptune reached out and pushed it open for us.  I was more astounded than ever, for it meant that he could function in the physical world as easily as any Earthling.

Outside he walked a few paces to the left and stopped.  There he opened his briefcase and removed a pack of cigarettes.  He removed a cigarette from the pack and put the package back in the briefcase.  Then without lighting the cigarette he tossed it into the gutter.

I was smoking a cigarette too.  Following Neptune's action, I tossed my cigarette away.  Mabel noticed my preoccupation and odd behavior.  She looked at Neptune and then at me and asked: "Who is that man and why is he staring at us so intently?"

I didn't reply to her question as I was too confused to get involved in explanations.  I said: "Come on Mae, let's get the suitcases into the car."

She knew something was wrong and I was aware of the three faces studying me with perplexity.  I made fumbling excuses for my odd behavior.  But on the drive home I was able to begin to snap out of it and to show them the warm welcome I felt in my heart.

 
As presented in The Secret of the Saucers, the mysterious events continued for Orfeo.  There were successive sightings of what appeared to be ordinary airplanes that each suddenly disappeared.  He was home on March 3 during the first occasion.  Four days later, he was walking with a neighbor when they both watched an aircraft vanish in a clear and cloudless sky.  Several days after that, he was among a group of employees outside the Lockheed plant when there was a third disappearing aircraft.  Orfeo had noticed that as on the previous occasion the airplane appeared "flat-toned" and "it failed to reflect the sun."  He commented: "But I didn't give the incidents too much thought as I had more than enough to do to try and unscramble the puzzle of my previous experiences with the extra-terrestrials without adding more problems."

In August while Orfeo was at work there were UFO sightings by disbelieving co-workers who openly scoffed at Orfeo's account of his experiences.  He wrote about Ernie Oxford after a sighting: "He still didn't believe my story, but he knew he had actually seen a saucer."  One evening during the night shift, Orfeo experienced a tremor and "knew it could only mean one thing."  He went to the door and saw a light in the sky that stopped in midair and changed from amber to red.  He called to the other workers to join him outside and the response of the 12 onlookers to the UFO sighting motivated Orfeo to observe: "This I was struck with the realization of what the mere sight of a single disk can do to the thinking of a number of persons."  On his last work night at Lockheed, there was another sighting — a silvery disk that eventually also "just disappeared."

As public interest in Orfeo increased, his weekly meetings at the Los Feliz Club House were relocated to the music room of the Hollywood Hotel.  Here, a flying saucer convention was eventually held with a list of participants that included Frank Scully and Truman Bethurum.  Orfeo admitted losing his temper on the last night of the convention, acknowledging there were people for whom no words of explanation could possibly prove anything that they didn't wish to believe.  Beyond the weekly lectures, he wanted more people to know about what had happened to him.
 

Then in September, 1953, Paul Vest's first article about my trip in the flying saucer was published in Mystic Magazine.  Immediately letters began coming from all over the United States and even from Mexico and Canada.  I was amazed at the public interest and general acceptance of my story.  It appeared that intuitively many persons had been prepared for the account.

Because of the article I was contacted by long-distance telephone by a man in the East who is a well-known evangelist.  His broadcasts are heard over a large radio network each week.  He told me in all good faith that in answer to his prayer for guidance after reading the article in Mystic, he had been shown a sign in the skies. . . . [etc.]


Thus, he said, he was absolutely convinced of the authenticity of my story.  He invited me to visit him in the East and make a number of appearances there.

Since I had already given up my job, we were low on funds at that time.  He forwarded me one hundred dollars to cover part of our expenses on the trip East.  He also enclosed a contract in which he agreed to pay me for each lecture.  My purpose in going East was to reach a much greater audience, but even the humblest of God's creatures must have sustenance for their bodies.  And surely a workman, even in God's work, is worthy of his hire.


. . . the minister of the gospel on whose word I had made the trip, failed me completely.  He has not up until the present time (one year later) paid me for my expense and time.  In fact, he was content to leave me in the East far from home and relatives and leave me stranded there penniless.

The final lecture in Buffalo was the most successful of any of the engagements.  People came from as far away as Canada, completely filling the large auditorium.  Thus, from a material standpoint Christianity had thrown me from the heights, but spiritually it had sustained me stronger than ever.  Also, I was beginning to learn an important lesson.  The hypocrites will invariably crucify, but the truly faithful will always redeem.

The Angelucci family received financial help from relatives and went to visit their folks back in New Jersey, where they stayed with Orfeo's father-in-law Alfred Borgianini.

The account of the first contact experience was expanded for Mystic Magazine No. 1: "I Traveled in a Flying Saucer."  The following excerpts provide examples.

The thought flashed through my mind, "Why have they contacted me — just an aircraft factory worker — a nobody?"

The voice replied, "We see the individual people of Earth as each one really is, Orfeo, and not as perceived by the limited senses of man."


"Every man, woman and child on Earth is recorded in our vital statistics by means of our recording 'crystal discs.'"

"We wish to tell Earth's people that visitors from other planets and of different types of evolution occasionally explore Earth's dense, heavy, gaseous atmosphere . . ."

The second Mystic Magazine article was featured in the May 1954 No. 4 issue: "I Meet The Flying Saucer Man."  The third Mystic Magazine article in the October 1954 No. 6 issue chronicled an experience that wasn't included in 20th Century Times.  The article is entitled "My Awakening On Another Planet."  It was said to have occurred during seven days in January, 1953 yet Orfeo wrote in his book that he was oblivious to it until half a year later.  The late summer of 1953 became the time when, in Orfeo's words in The Secret of the Saucers: ". . . the most beautiful and revealing of all my experiences with the etheric beings developed . . . apparently the most profound of all had to be revealed to my conscious mind in gradual steps of understanding, because the experience actually occurred in January of 1953 while I was still on the job at Lockheed, but it was not until six months later that I had any idea of the tremendous experience that had been mine.  During those bewildering intervening six months I honestly believed that for seven days of my life in January, 1953 I had been a victim of complete amnesia."

On the day in January when the momentous interlude began, he didn't go to work as he was recovering from the flu.

About four o'clock a rather strange, detached feeling came over me.  I was aware of a familiar odd prickling sensation in my arms and the back of my neck which usually announced the proximity of space craft.

I discounted the strange symptoms thinking they were only the result of my illness.  Then suddenly I began to feel so drowsy that I could scarcely keep my eyes open.  I remember starting toward the divan to lie down for a nap, but I later had absolutely no recollection of reaching that divan.

My next conscious perception was a peculiar "awakening" or regaining consciousness while on my job in the Plastics Department at Lockheed.  Stupefied and bewildered I looked uncertainly about the factory.  Dazedly, I recognized the familiar faces of my co-workers . . . and noticed the tools in my hands.

The realization that there had been some interruption to his perception of the passage of time brought a feeling of panic.  An associate told him to calm down and take a break.  When Orfeo saw a copy of the Los Angeles Times dated January 19, 1953, he discovered that seven days and nights had elapsed and the intervening period was a total blank.

At home I didn't mention my inexplicable loss of memory to Mabel.  And apparently she had noticed nothing unusual in my behavior during that entire week.  It seemed that in every way I had behaved in my accustomed manner.  I had eaten my meals, slept, gone to and from work and helped Mabel out at the Snack Bar, as usual.  It was fantastically incredible!

Orfeo was utterly baffled and deeply troubled about the lost seven days.  It was the first week in September, 1953, when he went for a walk after 10 p.m.: "As always, my feet seemed involuntarily to carry me toward the Hyperion Avenue Freeway Bridge."  He went to the spot where the being he called Neptune had talked with him and "thought of the spiraling, endless wonders of the universe."  As his thoughts drifted pleasantly, he again felt the odd sensation that he identified as always signifying an awareness of space visitors.

As in a dream my thoughts drifted back to that mysterious Monday afternoon six months before when, feeling much as I did now, I had walked toward the divan to take a nap.  An astonishing thing was happening: I was beginning to remember, faintly, hazily, at first, like the sun's golden rays breaking through black clouds.

As memory flooded back I clearly recalled again that Monday afternoon.  I was walking toward the divan . . . my eyes were so heavy I could scarcely keep them open.  In a daze I sank down upon the divan and immediately fell into a deep sleep!

Only now I could remember waking from that sleep!  My awakening was in a strange and wonderful world!  I was no longer upon Earth; some fantastic transition had taken place.  I awoke in a huge, fabulously beautiful room; a room the substance of which glowed ethereally with soft, exquisite colors.  I was lying upon a luxurious couch, or lounge.  Half awake, I glanced down at my body — but it was not familiar!  My body was never so perfectly proportioned or of so fine coloring and texture.


I noticed that I was wearing only a fine white garment, closely fitted and covering my chest, torso and upper part of my thighs.  A finely wrought gold belt was about my waist.  Although the belt appeared to be made of heavy links of embossed gold, it was without weight.  My new body felt amazingly light and ethereal and vibrant with life.

Orfeo wrote that incredible memories were coming back — "memories of another world, a different people — another life!"  He reflected: "This is my real world, my true body.   I have been lost in a dimension called Time and a captive in a forbidding land called Earth.  But now, somehow, I have come home."  A portion of one wall noiselessly divided to make an imposing doorway and a woman entered.  "Her beauty was breathtaking.  She was dressed simply in a kind of Grecian gown of glowing silvery-white substance; her hair was golden and fell in soft waves about her shoulders; her eyes were extremely large, expressive and deep blue.  Soft shimmering colors played continuously about her, apparently varying with every slight change of her thought or mood."

When the woman touched a control on a crystal cabinet near his bed, a large section of the opposite wall opened to reveal a huge mirror.  The man that Orfeo saw in the mirror was not himself, nor did the image seem that of a stranger.

Paradoxically, I remembered and yet I didn't remember!

"I have gained weight," I remarked, not knowing why I made such a statement, then added: "Also, I feel much better now."

She smiled and replied: "On the contrary, you have lost weight.  According to all Earthly standards you are now almost weightless."

Her strange words puzzled me.  I glanced down at my body which appeared to be solidly substantial in addition to being much larger and more finely proportioned.

"It's all a matter of the scale of vibration in which you are functioning," she explained.  "The vibratory rate of dense matter which makes up the planet Earth is extremely low, hence Earthly bodies are sluggish, dense and cumbersome.  Vibratory rates here are quite high and matter so tenuous that it would seem nonexistent were you in a dense physical body.  Because you are now in a body of a corresponding vibratory rate, the phenomena of this world is as real to you as your Earth world."

As I listened to her speak, I thought I remembered her name.  "You are Lyra?" I said half questioningly.

She nodded her head.

When Lyra spoke to him, she referred to him by the name Neptune.  Orfeo then wrote that the mysterious door appeared again and a tall, strikingly handsome man entered whom Orfeo/Neptune recognized as Orion.  When Orion also referred to him by the name Neptune, he inquired if there was some mistake.  An explanation was provided by Orion that the name bestowed upon the brother who'd first contacted Orfeo upon Earth had once been his own name and thus had held a deep significance for him.

In their world, I was, or had once been Neptune!  "But the other Neptune?" I asked.  "Who, then, is he?"


". . . The brother of whom you speak was in the illusion of the past known as Astra, but in the higher octaves of light, individualized aspects such as you know upon Earth are nonexistent.  Even now as we manifest in this most tenuous of material states of being, you are not aware of us in our true eternal aspect.  We are, you might say in terms of Earth, staging a dress-show reception for you, our lost brother.  Before the destruction our existence was much as you see it now; that is why you seem to remember all of this.  In that phase of the time dimension you were known as Neptune."

After being instructed to sleep for a while and experiencing a dreamless sleep, Orfeo/Neptune awoke and looked out upon "an incredibly wonderful and fantastic world."

A dream world, beyond the wildest flight of imagination.  Ethereal, scintillating color everywhere.  Fantastically beautiful buildings constructed of a kind of crystal-plastic substance that quivered with continuously changing color hues.  As I watched, windows, doors, balconies and stairs appeared and just as miraculously disappeared in the shining facades of the buildings.  The grass, trees and flowers sparkled with living colors that seemed almost to glow with a light of their own.

Somehow this world was familiar — "a world I had once known, and forgotten!"  Orion then told Orfeo/Neptune about the planet 'Lucifer.' This is the account as recollected by Orfeo.

"... So let us say that in one of the time frames or dimensions, there was once a planet in the solar system of Earth, called Lucifer.  It was of the least material density of any of the planets.  Its orbit lay between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.  Among the etheric beings, or heavenly hosts, it was called the Morning Star.  Among all planets it was the most radiant planet in the universe.

"The name of the prince of this shining planet was also Lucifer, a beloved Son of God."  Orion paused and the sadness deepened in his eyes.  Then he continued: "Earth's legends about Lucifer and his hosts are true.  Pride and arrogance grew in the heart of Lucifer and in the hearts of many Luciferians.  They discovered all of the secrets of matter and also the great secret of the Creative Word.  Eventually they sought to turn this omnipotent force against their brothers who were less selfish.  Also against the etheric beings and the Father, or Source, for it became their desire to rule the universe.  You know the rest of the legend: how Lucifer and his followers were cast down from their high estate.  In simpler words, the Luciferians who were embodied then in the most attenuated manifestation of matter 'fell' into embodiments in one of the most dense material evolutions, which is the animalistic evolution of Earth."

Orfeo/Neptune learned that Orion and Lyra were among those who did not join the Luciferians in their revolt.  Although the Luciferians shattered their radiant planet in the holocaust of their war, Orion and Lyra entered (or ascended to) the etheric, nonmaterial worlds in the higher octaves of light as liberated Sons of God, while the Luciferian hosts fell into the dream of mind in matter upon the dark planet of sorrows.  The place that Orfeo/Neptune currently found himself was identified as one of the larger planetoids of the shattered planet.  Lyra told him, "Only rarely do we leave our etheric state of being and enter our former time frame in individualized manifestations as you see us now."  Orion explained further that vast numbers of Earthlings are former Luciferians but not all.

Orfeo/Neptune was said to be one of the Luciferians who least wanted to join the others.

"Lucifer is presently incarnated upon Earth, but we may not disclose to you his present identity.  He has incarnated many times upon Earth and every name is familiar even to grade school children.  But some of those names would surprise you, for they are not what you might expect."

Orfeo/Neptune asked, "Why did Astra contact me?  Why don't you leave us to the fate we deserve, each one of us buried in his individual grave of living death."  Orion responded:

"Love is stronger than life and deeper than the boundless depths of time and space," he said softly.  "While our brothers are lost in the hell of unreality and turn their blinded, imploring eyes to the mute heavens, we can never forget them.  We intercede unceasingly for your people's liberation.  Thus today every bondsman upon Earth has within himself the power through the mystery of the Etheric Christ Spirit to cancel his captivity.

"Eventually all of mankind deep-drowned in Time and Matter, will surface to reality when they recognize their basic unity of being.  When man is for man honestly and sincerely and not selfishly arrayed against himself, the hour of deliverance from the underworld will be close at hand.  We wait now beyond the great, sad river of Time and Sorrows with open arms and hearts to receive among us our lost and prodigal brothers in the great day when they rejoin us as liberated Sons of God."

"Our disks, or saucers as Earthmen term them, are in your space-time frame as harbingers of  mankind's coming resurrection from the living death.  Although our disks are essentially etheric; that is, nonmaterial, they are controlled in such a way that they can almost instantaneously attract substance to take on any degree of material density necessary.  Various other types of space craft are now permitted to visit Earth for certain purposes.  These are from other worlds and also space islands of various densities of matter.  Some are on the borderline between materiality and nonmateriality.  But all are operated by intelligences highly spiritual in nature. . . ."

Eventually Lyra told him, "This is the seventh Earth day and through ourselves we shall take you back."  When "she raised the odd crystal in her hand to her forehead" he heard familiar music.  The book names the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria."  Lyra is quoted: "You will remember this, Orfeo."

When Orion and Lyra seated themselves near a crystal control panel — "Orion touched a crystal disk and immediately an entire wall of the room opened up into a huge three-dimensional void.  The room darkened and I saw within the void a magnificent view into outer space."  Orfeo witnessed a scene of a comet colliding with a planet and Lyra whispered to him: "It is an immutable law of the cosmos that too great a preponderance of evil inevitably results in self-destruction and a new beginning."

The scene shifted to another part of the universe where another world came in view with "another fiery red dot approaching."  This time, the approaching comet was exploded by "two tiny dots coming forth from that world apparently to intercept the fiery comet."  The scene shifted again and Orfeo recognized the Earth.  Again there appeared a "fiery red dot of cosmic doom."  Neither Lyra nor Orion spoke, but a strange voice said: "In the Time Dimension of Earth it is now the year 1986."

The portentous scene faded from the screen and Orfeo asked, "But what happens to Earth?"

Orion and Lyra both looked compassionately at me as Orion gently replied.  "That depends entirely upon your brothers of Earth and their progress in unity, understanding and brotherly love during the time period left them between the so-called now and the year 1986.  All spiritual help possible will be given them, not only by ourselves but by others from all parts of the universe.  We believe that they and their world will be saved, but in no time frame, or dimension, is the future ever written irrevocably . . ."

From today's perspective, 1986 was the year of the passage of Halley's Comet and the disastrous explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine.  The explosion has been reported to have released 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This Orfeo/Neptune interlude includes the experience of the return of his consciousness to Earth in the presence of Lyra.

She smiled gently into my eyes and touched the mysterious crystal panel.  Immediately the incredible, huge, three-dimensional screen became active again.  But no longer were we looking into the boundless depths of space and time.  Instead, I saw the familiar outlines of the Lockheed plant in Burbank.  There was the shop in which I worked.  The scene shifted inside the plant.  I saw the radomes and my working companions, Dave Donnegan and Richard Butterfield.  An unpleasant sensation came over me as though I were fainting, as though I were fading into the huge screen and becoming an active part of the scene I was viewing.  Terrified, I turned to call to Lyra, but she was no longer there, only a mist.  Then I blacked out!

My next conscious perception was my strange "awakening" on the job at Lockheed with all of my incredible experiences of those seven days seemingly utterly obliterated from my mind.

The episode leaves Orfeo with a profound insight about his two co-workers.

If every man and woman upon Earth could but grasp the great essential basic truth that we are all one and an integral part of God, then indeed all of mankind's hard trials and bitter tribulations would be over.

In The Secret of the Saucers Orfeo described another encounter with the space being he called Neptune, who appeared in the yard of the house of Orfeo's father-in-law during the family's New Jersey visit.  Neptune told him:

"You are indeed a dweller in two worlds now, Orfeo.  Sometimes it is difficult for you to determine which world is substance and which is shadow, or if both are not merely differing degrees of substance.  But you have done well, considering all that you have been through in these last two years.  In reality you are now liberated from your planet, Earth and are a citizen of the cosmos.  For seven Earth days you were conscious in our world as it existed in Time, while I kept watch over your physical body as it performed normal duties here on Earth.  Thus in a way I am a part of you even as you are a part of me.  There now exists eternal bonds of understanding between us."

As he spoke, I thought of a puzzling statement he had made to me during our first meeting.  It was that memorable night down by the Los Angeles River.  I distinctly remembered that he'd said: "We shall return, dear friend, but not to you."  I remembered the words so well because I had been so saddened to hear them.  Thus as I looked at him now I was thinking that his very presence there seemed to belie those words.

He smiled again and said gently: "In reality we have not returned to you, Orfeo.  You came to us.  When you awakened as one of us, you had come home.  Don't you understand?  We are not returning to the shadow, Orfeo; our lost brother has returned to us.  And from our first contact with you we never in reality left you. . . ."

After driving from New Jersey to return home to Los Angeles, Orfeo reflected: "I didn't know where to begin to start picking up the threads of my previous activities."  A few days had passed when he "received a phone call from Mrs. Dorothy Russell of Manhattan beach asking if I would give a talk before the prominent Neptunian Club of Manhattan Beach."  Other lectures followed and Orfeo resumed his regular weekly meetings at the Hollywood Hotel.
 
On one evening he recalled walking to the Los Angeles River and on the bridge hearing a gentle voice encouraging him to tell others about the undiscovered wonders of the material universe and the infinitely greater wonders beyond.  On this occasion, Orfeo recounted experiencing a vision of Jesus: "I beheld Him more clearly than the light of day, yet in no detail, as when one looks upon the sun and beholds only radiance."  
 
A conversation with the visionary being ensued, and an instruction was given to Orfeo. 

"Do not weep, Orfeo," He said gently.  "That is all in the past now.  But I am with you today even as I was with you then.  Tell mankind that I live and love them today even as I did two thousand years ago when I walked the shores of Galilea.  But tell men that to know me today when soon I shall again appear publicly upon Earth they must find me first within their own hearts. . . ."

*

 
There are variations between the account published in 20th Century Times and those that came later although the underlying meaning is consistent.  For example, the anecdote about the voice "coming from his own vocal cords" isn't included in the book, while Neptune telling Orfeo, "Your demise is also mine" in the original account was changed to "Your failure will be my own" in the magazine article and book.  During Orfeo's 'awakening on another planet,' the book names the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria" as being heard yet the article identifies "the stately melody of Albert Hay Mallote's musical setting of the Lord's Prayer."  The magazine article (and book) description of Orfeo meeting "The Flying Saucer Man" became more apocalyptic with Neptune being quoted as having said: "The hour of travail which in future history shall be known as 'The Great Accident' is nearer than any man dreams." 
 
Orfeo Angelucci is also the author of Son of the Sun published in 1959.  (article)
 
"Welcome Space Visitors" is the title of an Orfeo Angelucci lecture that may be heard in an audio recording included on a commercial CD entitled "The Lost UFO Lectures."  Orfeo is heard to say:
 

Many people believe in angels and still don’t believe in space visitors.  Well angels do not come from this Earth.  They were from outer space so therefore you do believe in space visitors.  If we believe in God we believe in a space visitor that is all-present, omnipotent, all over.  And of course that is the Highest.  The law and the rule of nature is One.