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landings?" he asks. 'I would strongly argue that it is - for one simple reason: the mechanisms that have generated these various beliefs are identical.' The crux of the problem is to reach beyond the endless reports of varied manifestations and seek out the source: the physical, psychic, of psychological mechanism which has inspired these beliefs. All of these incidents ar* subjective; that is, we have only the testimony of the witnesses that these peculiar events occurred. Although millions of people have claimed encounters with the ultraterrestrials in the past two thousand years, many millions of others have not had such experiences. Astronomers and physicists are neither trained nor equipped to deal with a purely subjective phenomenon* Only a few examples have been given, but it is apparent that Joseph Smith, Cyrus Teed, Helene Smith, and even John Dean were all confronted by the same basic phenomenon. Each approached it in a different, individualized way, and each received information structured to support Ms own beliefs. Albert K. Bender and Teed both explored black magic and alchemy. Both claimed they received complex cosmic theories from parahuman entities. Dean asked for and received elaborate facts and figures about extraterrestrial beings and the planets they supposedly inhabited. like Swedenborg and the biblical prophet Enoch, Helene Smith was shown other worlds and led to believe that she was visiting other planets. Reinhold Schmidt was transported to the centre of the pyramid; Bender was taken to underground bases in Antarctica; others have visited the underground palaces of the fairies and the subterranean cities of the Deros. It is not likely that any of these places exist in reality. It is more likely that these people made hallucinogenic excursions, or brain. The only, alternative explanation is that all these people were liars, hoaxsters or lunatics. None of the scientists, psychiatrists, and theologians who have investigated these matters have been able to accept such a simple explanation. A remarkable man named Aleister Crowley, born in 1875, became known as the wickedest man in the world through his work in black 'magick'. He too claimed to receive visits from an angel, and he was the centre of a large cult around the turn of the century. He was noted for sexually liberating Ms female followers, and he published a number of books expounding on his personal cosmology. Those books are currently enjoying a revival of popularity among the youth subculture. In 1939 a young rocket fuel scientist, John Whiteside Parsons, joined the Crowley cult and burrowed into the dark world of 'magick* and the occult. Another practitioner of the mysteries crossed Parsons' path in 1946, and the two became close friends, combining their efforts to conjure up demons and elementals. The newcomer, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, claimed he had a personal angel, a beautiful red-haired entity whom he called the Empress. The two men donned robes and engaged in secret mystical rites. According to Parsons, they had some success. On the ' Published by Neville Spearman. mind trips, guided by some force which is capable of manipulating the electrical circuits of the