The real Adamski

Nikola Tesla 

The full title of this book is "Countdown!!! to Space Fleet Landing or George Adamski speaks again from planet Venus (In 1974). Volume 7 - Tesla Speaks Series". The book's contents were supposedly received through mental transmission by Ruth E. Norman, the flamboyant leader of the Unarius Academy of Science, one of the stranger (and goofier) UFO contactee groups in California.

Unarius should not be confused with Urantia, another UFO-related new religion, nor (of course) with the planet Uranus. Unarius are probably best known for The Space Cadillac, an actual Cadillac with a "flying saucer" on the roof, which group members drive to make PR for their strange ideas. Unarius gained short-lived media attention after the tragic mass suicide of the Heaven's Gate cult, but the Unarians kindly informed the reporters that they had absolutely no intention of leaving ground...

This particular book was published in 1974, and I admit that I only skimmed it. It contains the usual litany of trivial messages from the Space Brothers. However, Ruth Norman's work does contain a few items that could make even seasoned fringe-watchers gasp. For starters, Norman claims to have established contact with Albert Einstein (currently residing at planet Eros), Kahlil Gibran, Nikola Tesla, Ezekiel and three U.S. astronauts killed in a tragic accident. But the main star of the show is definitely George Adamski, author of "Flying Saucers Have Landed" and "Inside the Space Ships". Adamski was easily the most famous (and notorious) contactee. He claimed to have met a man from Venus on a mission to impart higher knowledge to mankind. Adamski died in 1965, but according to Unarius, his soul was somehow taken to Venus where he was given continued instruction in the cosmic message by accomplished Venusian masters. It is this more enlightened version of Adamski which Ruth Norman claims to have contacted in 1974, and it naturally turns out that the old man gives full support to Unarius and bemoans the distortions of the true message made by his own followers.

A more bizarre trait of "Countdown!!!" is that Ruth Norman also claims to have received mental transmissions from Orfeo Angelucci, another UFO contactee (he is mentioned in Jung's famous book on flying saucers). These messages also come from Venus, where Angelucci is supposed to reside. Apparently, he has been promoted to an even higher rank than Adamski.

There's just one problem. Orfeo Angelucci was still alive and well on planet Earth when Unarius claimed to have received channelled messages from him... In fact, brother Orfeo didn't die until 1993!

Weirdly, Norman didn't exclude the "mental transmissions" from Orfeo's immortal soul on Venus before "Countdown!!!" went to print. Instead, she admits being surprised by Mr. Angelucci still being alive, but explains the whole thing by claiming that his Higher Self is so advanced that it already "oscillates" with the Venusians, hence the messages in a sense really did come from Venus.

A third aspect of some interest is Ruth Norman's own status. Usually, the channel is lower in rank than the channelled entity. Here, it is the other way around. *Norman* is higher in rank than Einstein, Adamski, Ezekiel and the various aliens she is speaking to. Norman, you see, is an earthly incarnation of the Archangel Uriel. She can therefore summon or discharge the spirits and aliens as she wills. This may be the reason why Norman doesn't communicate with the aliens through actual channelling, but rather uses a radio receiver!

I can't say "Countdown!!!" thrilled me. The messages themselves seem similar to those of other neo-Theosophical groups. There is a cosmic evolutionary process, a Celestial Hierarchy, benign aliens who wants to give us free energy, and the usual confusion concerning the actual status of the aliens: material or spiritual? The book contains a "photo" of an alien robot, which is actually a illustration of the Flatwoods Monster. Another mistake by the lower self of Ruth Norman? The prophecy of a mass landing of UFOs in 1975 failed to materialize, but the Space Cadillac is still going strong, although I suspect not on free energy...