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For the first few days following this experience I must confess I wondered if I would dare tell anyone at all about it. The first thing I did was to make a neat copy of the notes that I had taken as best I could, although far too quickly as my interlocutor spoke to me. When this was finished, I sent the original manuscript to a serious publisher who to my knowledge did not publish esoteric works or science fiction. Obviously I did not want this message of such importance to humanity to be lost among collections of mysterious adventure stories or occult books that cater for people interested in : . . Marcel Jullian, who ran the publishing house, invited me to Paris and told me that the manuscript was sensational. But he said that I must tell my life story before talking about the message, and that there might be “a few little changes to be made”. All that was absolutely out of the question. I did not want to take up a hundred pages telling my life story and then present the message that I had received, as if my personality were as important as those things which I had been asked to reveal. I wanted the message published, but only the message, even if it was not a thick book and thereby lacked interest for a publisher. So I asked Monsieur Jullian to return my manuscript. He replied that he did not have it because a reader had borrowed it, but that as soon as it was returned he would I had just returned to Clermont-Ferrand when I received a telegram inviting me to return to Paris to appear in a television show named the Great Chess Board, presented by Jacques Chancel. He was the director of a series in the publishing house to which I had sent my manuscript. He had read it and understood that it was absolutely fantastic, whether anyone believed it or not. So I took part in the show, and the thousands of letters that I received afterwards showed that, while some laughed, many had taken what I said very seriously and wanted to help. But days went by, and my manuscript was not returned. I sent a registered letter to the publisher, who replied that the manuscript would be sent to me, but that they had not yet found it. After ten 137 My Lire UNTIL THE First ENCOUNTER - THE ENCOUNTER alternative sciences. mail it to me.