William Dudley Pelley, International Fascism, and the Sirius Tradition Part III

Welcome to the third installment in my examination of the notorious 1930s-era fascist William Dudley Pelley. Pelley is chiefly known in this day and age for founding the Silver Shirts, one of the most notorious fascist organizations in pre-World War II America, and his eventual imprisonment after being charged with sedition in 1942. During the first installment in this series I considered a bit of Pelley's background (with a special emphasis on his time spent in the East around the time frame of the World War I) as well as the founding, structure and goals of his Silver Shirts. In the second installment I broke down the allegations of Pelley being a Nazi collaborator as well as his extensive ties to both the pre- and post-WWII fascist underground.

In this installment I would like to begin considering in earnest one of the least examined aspects of Pelley's life: his dabblings in the occult. Many researchers treat the occult and metaphysical aspects of Pelley's life as a minor footnote in relation to his fascist activism when in fact the former consumed far more of his life than the latter. Pelley had already developed his own bizarre metaphysical system well before the founding of the Silver Shirts and he would continue to promote it to literally the end of his life. By contrast, Pelley effectively ceased publicly promoting fascism after being imprisoned in the 1940s (though he never ceased supporting the ideology). That being said, both obsessions were closely entwined in Pelley's mind throughout his life.

Pelley with the Silver Shirts

As there has been very little written about Pelley's metaphysical beliefs I will devote much of this article toward examining the origins of Pelley's occult doctrines and the groups that he came into contact with in the early years. With that in mind, let us begin examining the event that sent Pelley on his curious journey into the arcane. It occurred in 1928 while Pelley was living in a bungalow in Altadena, California. This was toward the tail end of Pelley's career as a Hollywood screenwriter (which was discussed in part one) when he was first beginning to discover his latent anti-Semitism and racialism. In point of fact, Pelley was literally in the midst of "studying" the question of race in his bungalow when he slipped into a mystical experience (seriously).

"On the night of his conversion experience, Pelley went to bed early and read ethnological tracts until dozing, only to be awakened early in the morning by an inner voice shrieking 'I'm dying.' He felt a physical sensation like a 'combination of heart attack and apoplexy.' This physical distress subsided as Pelley plunged 'down a mystic depth of cool blue space not unlike the bottomless sinking sensation that attends the taking of ether for anesthetics.'

"'Whirling madly' into the blue mist, Pelley closed his eyes and hoped for the quick end of the experience. Feeling hands holding him up, he opened his eyes and found himself lying naked on a marble slab in an environment reminiscent of a Maxfield Parrish painting, with two men in white uniforms attending to him. The two vaguely familiar helpers told Pelley not to be afraid and not to try to see everything in the first 'seven minutes.' They instructed him to bathe in a nearby reflecting pool, which caused Pelley to lose his self-consciousness over being naked.

"One man left, and the remaining white-clad individual, 'William,' explained to Pelley that he had gone 'over' while stationed at a military camp in 1917. William told Pelley that everyone has lived hundreds of times before, because earth is a classroom where souls learn and move up the spiritual hierarchy. This hierarchy accounts for human races, which are simply 'great classifications of humanity epitomizing gradations of spiritual development, starting with the black man and proceeding upward in the cycles to the white.' Having completed his first spiritual lesson, the blue mist appeared to return Pelley to the bungalow.

"Although Pelley awakened to conscious awareness of his earthly existence, he remained in contact with the spirit world, as William continued to speak to him clairaudiently. He instructed Pelley to relax and return to the 'Higher Reality.' This time the marble portico was full of people, and Pelley realized that he knew all of them and that they were all saintly individuals, with 'no misfits, no tense countenances, no sour leers, no preoccupied brusqueness, nor physical disfigurements.' After a brief chat with these folks Pelley, again enveloped by the blue mist, returned to his bedroom, but now possessing 'strange powers of perception' to assist him in completing a specific errand on the material plane.

"Shaken by the experience, Pelley determined to regain his sense of the material world by visiting his office the next morning. He related that his employees found him to appear like a different person who stood straighter and healthier and less wrinkled. The experience also eliminated his troubling insomnia and anxiety."

(William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult, Scott Beekman, pgs. 53-54)

Maxfield Parrish's Daybreak

At this point let me pause and note that Pelley had little experience concerning Spiritualism or the occult (although greater than he long admitted) when the events of May 28-29, 1928 transpired. Its also interesting to note the location of where Pelley's "seven minutes in eternity" occurred: Altadena, California. Altadena is located about fourteen miles from downtown Los Angeles and is directly north of the city of Pasadena.

As I'm sure many of my readers are aware, Pasadena was the long time home of Jack Parsons, the notorious rocket scientist and Crowley disciple who has long obsessed conspiracy culture. Parsons was barely a teenager when Pelley's mystical experience occurred, but he displayed an interest in the occult at a very young age. Pelley's experience would make him something of a minor celebrity in the late 1920s and early 1930s and Pelley's mystical teachings would continue to be propagated in the Los Angeles area by the Silver Shirts well into the 1930s. I've found nothing to indicate that Parsons was aware of Pelley, but given the closeness of Pelley's initial experience, it does not seem totally beyond the realm of possibility that Parsons was at least aware of Pelley on some level.

Jack Parsons

But back to the matter at hand. Pelley underwent a second experience not long after the first when he was in the midst of traveling cross country.

"Pelley decided that the 'fleshpots' of Hollywood could not help him understand his metaphysical experience, so he traveled to New York to meet with his friends there. While crossing New Mexico by train, he underwent a second experience. As he was reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay 'The Over-Soul,' a brilliant shaft of white light poured down on Pelley. A disembodied presence explained to Pelley that Jesus Christ was an 'actual Personage,' and that existing churches and ministers were not only wrong about Christ's teachings, but were leading millions of people astray. The presence instructed Pelley to continue to receive clairaudient messages by utilizing the 'hidden powers' within him, and to spread the correct understanding of Christ.

"In New York, Pelley met with his friend Mary Derieux, fiction editor for the American Magazine. Deeply immersed in spiritualism herself, Derieux excitedly joined Pelley in exploring his new powers. During the summer of 1928 they spent two weeks engaged an automatic writing.

"The beings from the other side instructed them that the Music of the Spheres (a concept swiped from Pythagorus) is the very center of the mystery of universal creation. Within this universe there is no force but love; hatred and evil are merely the absence of love. These beings also explained to Pelley and Derieux that they dwelled on the 'harmonious plane' (which is the next level above the earth) and communicated with certain earth-dwelling souls to promote love and harmony.

"A large portion of these messages focused specifically on the role of Pelley in spiritual history. The voices allegedly explained to Pelley that he would apprentice in tribulation, then achieve financial independence so he might be ready for freedom and service to higher beings. He had been chosen because art is the 'handmaiden of God,' and artists like himself are the true chosen priesthood."

(William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult, Scott Beekman, pg. 55)

In either late 1928 or early 1929 Pelley would write down his initial "seven minutes in eternity." It would go on to become his most successful piece of writing.

"Returning to New York, Pelley rented a room at the Commodore Hotel and, through a process he later called 'super radio,' wrote the narrative of his 'seven minutes in eternity' in less than two hours. Derieux presented the article to her boss, American Magazine editor Merle Crowell, who agreed to run the story and pay Pelley $1,500 for it. Appearing in the March 1929 issue of American, Pelley's tale of travel to other planes of reality generated a mass of mail both to the editor and to the writer. The American boasted a subscription list of over 2,200,000 people at the time, and Pelley's tale became one of the most widely read accounts of paranormal activity in American history.

"Stunned by the response to his article – the American's offices received thousands of letters concerning the 'seven minutes' – Pelley decided to move to New York in summer 1929. He rented part of a 53rd Street brownstone for himself... Pelley spent much of 1929 responding to his voluminous correspondence and participating in Manhattan séances and spiritualist meetings.

"During one of these meetings, Pelley made the acquaintance of the trance medium George Wehner. Something of a 'psychic to the stars,' Wehner carved out a very successful career for himself during the 1920s. Pelley attended séances in which Wehner served as amanuensis for such diverse celebrities as Joseph Conrad, film scenarist June Mathis, various prominent American Indians, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

"Pelley eventually began contacting many of these same people during his own sessions. He claimed that Robert Louis Stevenson provided him with an unused chapter and asserted that Joseph Conrad clairaudiently dictated an entire novel to him. Pelley published this work of fiction in summer 1929 as Golden Rubbish, allegedly to answer many of the questions readers raised in response to his American Magazine article."

(ibid, pgs. 57-58)

Pelley had become involved in the then thriving New York spiritualist movement even before his description of his "seven minutes in eternity" appeared in American Magazine in 1929. His most notably contact was with the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR). This association began due to the active involvement of Pelley's friend Mary Derieux in the Society.

"As chair of the publications committee of the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR), Derieux provided Pelley with entry into New York spiritualist circles. These contacts garnered Pelley's exposure to current theories and writings on psychical research and undoubtedly helped him develop his own ideas. Further, Pelley's account of visiting another plane made an immediate splash in the psychical community, as it placed him squarely within the debate over the most divisive spiritualist issue of the period – reincarnation.

"Established in 1884 by, among others, physicist William Barrett and psychologist William James, the ASPR staggered through a tumultuous early career. Unlike the older English Society for Psychical Research, the ASPR faced chronic underfunding and a lack of full-time psychical researchers. Owing to financial difficulties, the ASPR was absorbed by the English society in 1889, only to reappear as an independent organization in 1909, thanks primarily to the dynamic leadership of Columbia professor James Hervey Hyslop.

"Although Hyslop died in 1920, the Society reached the pinnacle of its public success in the ensuing decade, propelled by vigorous researchers such as Walter F. Prince and Lamarkian psychologist William McDougall. A spate of best-selling books, including Sir Oliver Lodge's Raymond and Baird T. Spaulding's five-volume Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East; successful speaking tours by Lodge, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the playwright Maurice Maeterlinck; and the publicity surrounding annual international congresses help push psychical research into the headlines. In the early 1920s, even Thomas Edison became involved, spending part of his final years working on a spiritual communication machine.

"The seriousness with which psychical research was taken is illustrated most clearly by the establishment of the first university-affiliated psychical laboratory, at Duke University in 1928. Headed by J. B. Rhine, who originally moved to Duke to work with McDougall, the lab investigated scores of mediums and psychics. Rhine initially studied the question of life after death but, realizing the pitfalls of this line of inquiry, quickly restricted his focus to 'corporeal parapsychical'  material (mental or subjective phenomena, including spiritualism). Rhine, who worked at Duke until 1965, published a series of best-selling books and coined the terms 'parapsychology' and 'extra-sensory perception.'

"Despite growing public awareness of the Society, psychical researchers faced increasing schisms within the movement. Issues such as reincarnation and ectoplasmic evidence divided the ASPR into warring factions. When disputes arose over the validity of trance medium (and ectoplasmic material spewer) 'Margery,' local branches of the Society left to organize themselves into independent organizations.

"Although never a member of the ASPR, Pelley found a great deal of interest in the debates swirling within the society during the late 1920s. Needing to get his business affairs in order, however, he returned to California in summer 1928. Pelley and Mina began automatic-writing sessions almost as soon as he returned to the Pacific coast. During the sessions Pelley became increasingly convinced of his own spiritual importance. Pelley related that one of his California spirit contacts noted that, in numerous previous incarnations, he had been one of those 'people who kicked up more of a rumpus on the human stage than humanity especially liked at the time, and always in some proselytizing capacity that wrought alterations in the mode of humanity's living.' This developing sense of self-importance, coupled with the urging of Mary Derieux, led Pelley to publish the account of his conversion experience."

(ibid, pgs. 55-57)

By 1930, in the wake of the success of his American Magazine article recounting his "seven minutes in eternity", Pelley began publishing his own metaphysical-centric magazine. It was was called the New Liberator and purported to promote Christ's teachings (as defined by Pelley) and the "vast machinery, operating with infinitesimal precision and accounting for every event on our present plane of consciousness." These were bold objective to be sure, but the magazine experienced financial difficulties from the onset. Eventually he worked through these difficulties after he started receiving advertisement revenue from other metaphysical organizations.

"The issuance of the October New Liberator inaugurated a short period of stability, and Pelley published the magazine on a monthly basis for the rest of the year. Pelley reorganized the editorial staff during this period, and brought Olive E. Robbins on board as business manager. Robbins, in a move that greatly aided the magazine's continued existence, managed to increase advertising revenue. The advertisements, however, proved to be something of a double-edged sword. In no position to refuse advertising dollars from any source, Pelley accepted money from a variety of shady metaphysical organizations, including the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Cruces (AMORC) and Psychiana. Although the advertising revenue was desperately needed (and Pelley agreed with significant aspects of the teachings of these groups), affiliation with such organizations did nothing to promote the acceptance (or perceived validity) of Pelley's religious doctrine. 

"Established by New York advertising man H. Spencer Lewis, also known as Wishar Spenle Cerve, the AMORC represents one of several Rosicrucian groups active in the United States. All of these groups claim that their teachings are based upon writings ascribed to the mythical seventeenth century mystic Christian Rosenkreuz. Lewis, however, went on to persist that his organization's teachings actually dated from the reign of Thutmose III, circa 1500 B.C. In a sort of spiritual alchemy, the AMORC blends Christianity with Kabbalism and Hermetic theories, with the ultimate goal of transcending material form. Lewis skillfully mixed in Theosophical elements to separate his version of Rosicrucianism from his competitors (completing a circle begun with Theosophy founder Helena P. Blavatsky, who earlier swiped elements from European Rosicrucianism for her movement). During the 1930s Lewis oriented much of his teachings towards the spiritualist mecca of Mount Shasta. His 1931 volume Lemuria:The Lost Continent of the Pacific placed the Atlantis myth in the Pacific Ocean, with Mount Shasta as the continent's peak and current home of cavern-dwelling Lemurian survivors. Owing to its image as a mail-order religion, AMORC has never been respected within the esoteric religious community."

(William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult, Scott Beekman, pgs. 64-65) 

The AMORC is most well known in this day and age to conspiracy buffs for a certain alleged assassin who attended in single meeting of the order in either 1966 or 1968.

"On May 28, 1966, a young Palestinian immigrant fascinated with the occult had attended his first meeting of the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC) at the society's Akhnaton Lodge in Pasadena, and was the subject of an experiment in sensory perception, sitting blindfolded while attempting to identify objects by touch. AMORC was one of the many splinter groups that broke off from the SRIA in England; they had OTO and Golden Dawn connections, but created a distinctly American style of recruiting: direct-mail. Most people of a certain generation are familiar with those ads in all sorts of magazines with the tag 'What Secret Power Did These Men Possess?' and a P.O. box where one could send for information and began a correspondence course in mental telepathy, meditation and, eventually, magic.

"This interest continued for the next few years. In March 1968, the Palestinian was in Pasadena – where he lived with his mother, some blocks north of where Jack Parsons had lived in the 1940s and 1950s – attending a meeting of the Theosophical Society's Adyar Lodge...

"A few months later, he would be arrested for the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. The Palestinian, of course, was Sirhan Bishara Sirhan."

(Sinister Forces Book I, Peter Levenda, pgs. 297-298)

Early ads for the AMORC

Other accounts hold that it was May 28, 1968 that Sirhan Sirhan attended his first (and reportedly only) AMORC meeting. This date is most striking as May 28, 1928 was the day upon which Pelley claimed to have had his "seven minutes in eternity" experience. Thus, Sirhan Sirhan attended at AMORC meeting either 38 or 40 years to the day of Pelley's experience beginning. I have been able to determine whether Pelley ever attended meetings at the group's Pasadena lodge, but its hardly beyond the realm of possibility as Pelley lived in Altadena during the final years of his Hollywood days. As noted above, Altadena is directly north of Pasadena.

Sirhan Sirhan

If nothing else, the AMORC seems to have had a long lasting influence of Pelley in one way: How to raise funds via direct mail. Pelley's metaphysical work would be subsidized for much of his life through revenues generated from direct mail beginning in the early 1930s.

Before leaving the AMORC, its also worth noting an organization Levenda notes in the above quote: SRIA, which stands for Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. This outfit arguably has an even more colorful history than its AMORC offshoot.

"The SRIA was an occult lodge founded in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century as an outgrowth of the British lodge, the Societas Rosicruciana In Anglia (also known as SRIA). The British SRIA was the breeding ground of the Golden Dawn, which itself was the breeding ground of Aleister Crowley. Without going into too much detail about the creation and history of these orders, which is certain to bore and confuse the reader, let us summarize by saying that the head of the American SRIA was, for quite some time, one George Winslow Plummer, a devoted occultist and Hermeticist who edited a magazine of all things alchemical and Rosicrucian called Mercury. Plummer was also interested in Christian mysticism, and aligned himself with several renegade Christian churches, including something called the Holy Orthodox Church. He was also a member of Aleister Crowley's OTO, and thus fits the mold of occultists everywhere: the inveterate joiner and accumulator of dignitaries. Plummer died in 1944, and was succeeded in the SRIA by his widow, the ethereal Mother Serena, who played the organ at the church's headquarters at 321 West 101st Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan when the author knew her. Mother Serena later married Theodotus Stanislaus de Witow (1890-1969), who then became the Patriarch of the Holy Orthodox Church, as well as the head of the SRIA until his death in 1969."

(ibid, pg. 278)

George Winslow Plummer (left), founder of the American branch of the SRIA

The SRIA opens up a series of curious synchronicities. Another member of SRIA was Francis Israel Regardie, a prominent occultist and author who was both a member of a successor organization to the Golden Dawn as well as Aleister Crowley's personal assistant for some years. Regardie was initiated into the SRIA in Washington D.C. in 1926, according to Levenda.

Regardie

Then, in 1964, the above-mentioned Patriarch Theodotus Stanislaus de Witow would consecrate a man named Walter (Vladimir) Propheta a bishop of the American Orthodox Church. Shortly thereafter Bishop Propheta would incorporate this church as the American Orthodox Catholic Church (AOCC). The AOCC was a curious domination that was along alleged to have had ties to the US intelligence community as well as the assassination of JFK (both Jack S. Martin and David Ferrie were bishops of the AOCC). Much more information on the AOCC and its ties to the JFK assassination can be found here.

Propheta

The AOCC also had some type of connection to the Sovereign Order of Saint John (SOSJ), a secret society than claimed descent from the Medieval Knights Hospitallers via the Russian line of succession. The SOSJ has existed since at least the 1930s, but during its heyday in the 1960s it counted numerous "former" high ranking military officers and a few CIA assets as members. The SOSJ has also been linked to the Kennedy assassination. More information on the Order can be found here and here.

Thus, Pelley was involved in the AMORC, an organization that gained infamy through its brief affiliation with Sirhan Sirhan in 1966/68. But beyond this, the AMORC had ties to the SRIA during the time period Peley was involved with the former. The SRIA featured members linked to both Aleister Crowley and the Golden Dawn and eventually became involved in the bizarre netherworld of fringe Christian churches and military orders claiming Medieval descent. What's more, Pelley was reportedly a close associate of a reputed member of the SOSJ during the 1930s, as was noted in the second installment of this series. Thus, this web of strange connections comes full circle.

Another famous occult organization Pelley became involved with on some level was the Theosophical Society. At a minimum the Society had an influence on his own theology.

"... Although Pelley steadfastly refused to admit that his teachings came from any source other than clairudient messages, he did admit his familiarity with Theosophical writings. While decrying their relegated status of Christ, Pelley noted that 'the Theosophists are nearest to the true facts about the forces operating behind life of any of the so-called theological creeds or sects.'

"Established by Russian émigré Helena P.Blavatsky (HPB), and Henry S. Olcott in 1875, Theosophy became the most successful occult system in American history. Blavatsky's bombastic writings attracted thousands of followers in America, India, and Europe. Like Pelley she claimed that her writings came to her through messages received from Ascended Masters. Blavatsky's system was a syncretic blending of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, spiritualism, Egyptian Hermeticism, Kabbalism, and occultism. Theosophy is generally Buddhist and Hindu in doctrine and Christian in morality. Her cosmology outlined the development of seven root-races of humanity, each with seven subroots. These human forms (d)evolved from a purely spiritual form to a material one, with the ultimate, emanationist end of returning to immaterialism. Like Pelley, Theosophy promoted evolution, karma, reincarnation, and after-death states.

"Pelley's debt to Theosophy cannot be underestimated, yet he frequently decried Blavatsky's contention that Jesus represented simply one of many equally important Ascended Masters. Although at least two Theosophical splinter groups developed a Christocentric cosmology not unlike Pelley's system, Pelley never mentioned either Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophical Society or the Arcane School of Alice Bailey in his writings. Given Pelley's voluminous appetite for metaphysical books (and the esoteric circles he moved in), it seems highly unlikely that he did not possess at least a rudimentary knowledge of these groups, particularly Bailey's group, which (like the Theosophists) was active in Los Angeles during the 1920s. Pelley's silence regarding these groups may have been an attempt to separate his movement from two theologies so similar to his own beliefs (and potentially capable of siphoning off Liberation followers).

"Pelley, like many other esoteric writers of the period, also borrowed the notion of ancient, advanced civilizations from the Theosophists (and buttressed these beliefs with evidence from the works of Isaac Newton Vail). He persisted that global cataclysms resulted in the destruction of highly developed societies in Atlantis and Lemuria. According to Theosophical teachings, Lemuria housed the third root-race (the first race to possess physical bodies, reproduce sexually, and bear responsibility for good and evil), while the fourth root-race, the last remnant of whom perished a few thousand years ago, called Atlantis home. The Atlantians are especially significant to Theosophists because they were the alleged composers of the 'Stanzas of Dyzan,' the book of knowledge upon which all world religions were based."

(William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult, Scott Beekman, pgs. 74-76)

It's interesting to note that the above-mentioned Rudolf Steiner was also a member of the eventually Crowley-dominated OTO. And of course the blogosphere is awash with countless conspiracy theories concerning Alice Bailey, a long time bugaboo of the conspiratorial right. But back to Pelley.

Pyramidism would also be heavily incorporated into his theology.

"For Pelley tangible proof of the existence of these ancient civilizations can be found by studying the timeline preserved in the Great Pyramid of Giza. Pyramidists believe the passageway from the pyramid's entrance to the king's chamber is a prophetic account of the history of humanity. They discern the course of human history by dividing this time line into 'pyramid' inches. The 'pyramid' inch, slightly larger than the English inch, as one five-hundred-millionth of the Earth's axis. Using this measurement, the pyramidists determined that the time line runs from 2624 B.C. to A.D. 2001. For most of its course the time line is one inch per year, but, at the year 1909, it becomes one inch per month, thereby giving even more specific prophetic messages. Although pyramidism reaches back into the nineteenth century, Pelley developed his ideas on the matter from David Davidson, pyramidism's leading twentieth-century proponent. Pelley's views on the Great Pyramid were taken almost verbatim from Davidson's writings.

"Pelley's support for Davidson's theories derived in part from the pyramidist's claim that May 29, 1928, represented a significant date in human history. This, of course, was the night of Pelley's 'seven minutes in eternity.' Following this lead, Pelley promoted the idea that this date began the 'Time of Tribulation,' which would end on September 16, 1936. Pelley placed great significance upon these dates, as well as several other 'pyramid dates,' such as January 31, 1933 (the day Hitler took power), August 20, 1953 (the potential end of the Piscean Age), and September 17, 2001. Pelley believed the 2001 date denoted the Second Coming of Christ or, as Davidson declared, 'the final cleansing of the whole world for the full extension of the Kingdom of Heaven to all the earth.'"

(ibid, pgs. 76)

Before wrapping things up I would like to briefly consider one final group Pelley became involved with during the early days: the Mighty I AM movement.

"Established by former Chicago fortune-teller Guy Ballard and his wife, Edna, the Mighty I AM (the 'inner reality of the divine') achieved startling success during the 1930s. The Ballards' cult melded Christian Science, Unity, Rosicrucianism, and Pelley's teachings (which they borrowed freely) with Theosophy. While I AM represented the most popular diffusion of Theosophy ever attained in this country, one scholar has quite accurately persisted that the Ballards 'reduced the resulting mishmash to the mental level of the comic-books.' The cult began in 193o when Guy Ballard allegedly met the legendary Comte de Saint Germain on Mount Shasta. Ballard swiped most of Helena Blavatsky's religious system, placing Saint Germain and Jesus Christ at the top of a pantheon of Ascended Masters. While Guy Ballard developed ideas from Theosophy (and a few meetings with Psychiana's Frank. B Robinson), Edna Ballard began holding esoteric classes based on material she lifted from Pelley's League for the Liberation writings. The group peaked in the mid-1930s. At the height of its success their meetings attracted more than six thousand devoted followers. Guy Ballard's death in 1939 and a series of fraud trials against Edna, beginning the next year, spelled the end of their prominence. The I AM Foundation continues to this day, but only with a shadow of its former grandeur.

"Although the Ballards claimed that their teachings came directly from Saint Germain, they did reveal a debt to Pelley. Their writings included references to 'Christian Democracy,' citations of No More Hunger, and a decidedly Pelley-like, anti-New Deal, conservative political perspective. Part of the Ballards' appeal was the nationalistic overtones of I AM doctrine. They argued that the Masters lived in the United States (primarily in the far West), that humanity began in America, and that this country would be the vessel of spiritual light. The Ballard essentially filled the void (with admittedly much greater success) left by Pelley when he formed the Silver Shirts. Their doctrines were almost interchangeable, and the Ballards promoted a pro-American, conservative agenda very similar to Pelley's pre-anti-Semitic position. It was not surprising, then, that Pelley spiritualist followers deserted him for the I AM organization.

"As a tribute to Pelley, Guy Ballard, in his second book of I AM doctrine, even named a lesser Master 'Pelleur.' The Ballards' acknowledgment of influence, however, did not prevent them from raiding Pelley's membership for I AM converts. The Ballards attracted both rank-and-file League for the Liberation veterans and close Pelley associates. For example, Harry Seiber, the man who burned the Galahad Press's records in anticipation of the bankruptcy proceedings, left his post as Silver Shirt treasurer in the wake of Pelley's trail to become the associate director of the Saint Germain Activities."

(William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult, Scott Beekman, pgs. 110-111)

Guy and Edna Ballard

The Mighty I AM cult plays a crucial role in a latter part of this saga, so do keep them in mind. At this point I shall wrap things up for now. In the next installment I shall finish outlining Pelley's theology by the early 1930s, from which point it went through few variations for the rest of his life. From there I shall consider Pelley's role in the post-WWII New Age and Ufology scenes as well as the possible interest powerful figures in the American national security establishment took in his work at the onset of the Cold War. Stay tuned.

Has a Pyramid Been Discovered Beneath the Bermuda Triangle?

A few days ago I stumbled upon a very brief but highly intriguing documentary posted on MSN concerning the discovery of a "crystal" pyramid found some 2000 meters beneath the sea within the legendary Bermuda Triangle. So far I've been unable to find any mention of this discovery in other mainstream publications, thus I must conclude that this documentary is highly speculative at best. It doesn't help that various New Age-leaning blogs have posted even more incredible accounts of a second pyramid and a Sphinx, among other things, also being found down there, all of which appears to be totally bogus. What little evidence of this discovery that exists only claims one pyramid.

Still, it makes for some intriguing possibilities. A fine article published on Collective Evolution has a compelling breakdown of this alleged find:

"There appears to be a speculative discovery that has been made by French explorers that is being considered a monumental discovery. It is believed they discovered a partially translucent, crystal-like pyramid rising from the Caribbean seabed— its origin, age and purpose are completely unknown at this point. The picture below is fascinating.

These potential amazing underwater pyramid structures were first identified using sonar technology according to oceanographer Dr. Verlag Meyer. In terms of the size of this re-discovered pyramid, it is larger in scale than the pyramids of ancient Egypt. Interestingly, on the top of the pyramid are two very large holes. Water moves at high speeds through one of the holes causing waves to roll by forming a giant vortex. This causes a massive surge of waves and mist on the surface of the sea. Scientists are now pondering a new idea, is this vortex effect explaining what has been happening with disappearing passing boats and planes in the mysterious Bermuda Triangle?"

the alleged structure

The Bermuda Triangle has of course been an area of much speculation in New Age and UFO circles for well over half a century now. It first gained national attention sometime around 1950 when reports of the mysterious disappearance of Flight 19 in 1945 began to appear in the press but strange happenings within the Bermuda Triangle have apparently been occurring for some time.

"People in Florida were also watching aircraft in the fall of 1945, the common assumption being that the objects were some kind of new secret weapon. Then on December 5, 1945, one of the most famous disappearances in history occurred. Five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers took off from Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station on a routine training mission. Fourteen men were aboard. Although the weather was perfect, the flight soon ran into some kind of trouble. Radio contact with the base ended abruptly. A Martin Mariner flying boat carrying a crew of thirteen was sent up to find the missing Flight 19. Twenty minutes after it took off radio communications with it also ended abruptly.

"Altogether, twenty-seven men and six planes completely disappeared a few miles off the Florida coast that afternoon. An extensive search by land, sea, and air was conducted for weeks afterwards. It was one of the biggest searches in history, and it failed to turn up a single piece of debris... Not even an oil slick.

"The disappearance of Flight 19 and the rescue plane sparked the official beginning of the Bermuda Triangle mystery. In the more than fifty years since, in excess of thirty planes have vanished in the lozenge-shaped area southwest of Bermuda, carrying with them a total of some 300 people. A number of ships, together with their entire crews, have also melted away there forever. Such incidents can be traced back as far as 1846. Ivan Sanderson, who made a study of this phenomenon, believed there are at least six of these vile vortices, as he calls them, spaced evenly around the world. The Devil's Sea off the coast of Japan, for example, has swallowed up so many ships that fishermen carefully sail around it.

"The Navy took the disappearance of Flight 19 very seriously. In January 1946, a group of Naval Intelligence officers were ordered by President Truman to form an investigative body called the Central Intelligence Group. This was the forerunner to the CIA. In the spring of 1946 the CIG participated in a series of secret hearings in Washington. The wives and relatives of the missing men were flown to Washington to attend the meetings. Since then most of these people have refused to discuss the subject at all. But one mother of a missing man did confide to researcher Art Ford, the famous disc jockey who made a hobby of investigating the Flight 19 case, that she believed her son was still alive 'somewhere... maybe in space.'

"During 1965-66, the National Bureau of Standards mounted special microphones and instruments along the coastline facing the Bermuda Triangle to try to pick up sounds that might lie above the range of human hearing. They succeeded in recording odd whispering sounds of unknown origin. The Navy quietly conducted the new search of the Triangle in 1967, spending over five million dollars to search the ocean floors with special research submarines and devices. As usual, they failed to find any trace of the missing planes and ships and were unable to come up with any new explanation for the mystery...

"Everyone has heard of the Marie Celeste, the ship found floating crewless in the Atlantic in 1872. There have been scores of similar finds. Usually such ships are completely intact, often with food cooking on the stoves and the galley tables set for dinner. The crews and passengers simply abandon ship, leaving all their personal effects behind. Five such ships were found adrift in the Bermuda Triangle area during June-July 1969."

(Our Haunted Planet, John Keel, pgs. 192-193) 

It should be noted, however, that the Bermuda Triangle itself is very much a piece of modern mythology and thus many of the above-mentioned claims are highly controversial. More skeptical takes on the Triangle can be found here and here. Now, with this disclaimer out of the way, let us move on to the pyramid.

The notion of mysterious pyramids beneath the seas of the Bermuda Triangle is not a new one. As the Collective Evolution article makes clear, an individual known as Dr. Ray Brown was making claims of the pyramid's existence as early as the 1960s. CE notes:

"If the pyramid does in fact exist it is technically not a new discovery as it was initially identified by a Dr. Ray Brown in the 1960s and since has been independently verified by diving teams from France and the U.S. Nonetheless, this re-discovery has rocked scientists around the world. 

"More on Dr. Ray Brown’s experience, he came upon the structure while scuba diving in the Bahamas. He investigated the structure and was amazed that the sides of the pyramid were completely smooth and the joints between the individual blocks to be nearly imperceptible. Upon entering the pyramid, Ray was further astounded by the clean, smooth sides of the interior: no algae or coral grew on the walls. Inside the pyramid Ray was fascinated by the various structures and items he saw inside. At one point he attempted to remove a multi-faceted red gemstone attached to a metallic rod that descended from the center of the ceiling but was unable to dislodge it. As he continue on, about four feet below the point of the gemstone, he saw a bronze sculpture of two open hands. Resting in the open hands is a now famous crystal sphere that he was able to take from its resting place. Four inches in diameter, Ray was surprised that he could lift the crystal sphere easily."

Brown was apparently not the only individual back in that era seeking pyramids under the seas of the Bermuda Triangle. The great Robert Anton Wilson made reference to such endeavors, and claims that he was even asked to participate in one, in his classic The Cosmic Trigger Volume 1: The Final Secrets of the Illuminati:

"As for the prediction that I would dive into the ruins of Atlantis: after I got back from England, an occultists named Alve Stuart contacted me and invited me to join an expedition to the Bermuda Triangle to investigate various legends, including the idea that part of Atlantis was down there, and reports from natives of the area that UFOs are often seen rising from the waters. I declined, partly because of competing projects that seemed even more bizarre and amusing, and partly because I wanted to see what would happen if I refused 'Their' evident desire to get me to Atlantis.

"A month later, Charles Berlitz claimed to have found a sunken pyramid in the Bermuda Triangle. He said it was twice the size of the pyramid of Cheops, and that was really amusing, because Shea and I had put a pyramid 'twice the size of the pyramid of Cheops' right there, in Illuminatus, but we thought we were writing fiction at the time.

"As we go to press, I hear from Carl Weschcke, an occult publisher who has printed many of my articles in his magazine, Gnostica, that Berlitz has joined forces with Alve Stuart, the man who wanted to take me to Atlantis. The two of them are down there now, hoping to bring back photos of that damned pyramid Shea and I thought we invented, and of the UFOs rising into the stars."

(pg. 225) 

Robert Anton Wilson (top) and Charles Berlitz (bottom)

While the Berlitz/Stuart expedition apparently failed in its purpose (if it was in fact actually carried out) the description Wilson presents that was given to him by Berlitz is remarkably consistent with preliminary accounts of the crystal pyramid found beneath the seas of the Bermuda Triangle. Supposedly the Bermuda Triangle pyramid is 300 meters wide and 200 meters high. The Great Pyramid of Giza, by contrast, is presently about 139 meters off the ground (though it originally stood at 147 meters in height). While the Bermuda Triangle underwater pyramid is not quite double the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza the above-mentioned figures are at least within the ballpark.

the Great Pyramid of Giza

But moving along. As Wilson indicates above, the revelation of a pyramid buried beneath the seas of the Bermuda Triangle immediately brings to mind the legendary island of Atlantis. Most of what we know of these legends comes down to us from the Greek philosopher Plato.

"Easily the most famous, and the most-written about, lost world also has its origins in Greek culture: Atlantis. Described in the fourth century B.C. by Plato, the account of Atlantis in the Timaeus and Critias dialogues contains fewer words than a typical short story, yet it has spawned an immense industry of books, television programs, videos, and speaker's tours -- each speaker or writer claiming to have found the 'real' Atlantis. Today, dozens of locations in Europe and North Africa have been proposed as the site of the lost civilization, as well as most distant places such as Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, eastern North America, Bermuda, the Azores, the Canaries, the Cape Verde Islands, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the Yucatán Peninsula, the Caribbean Sea, Zimbabwe, Mesopotamia, and an impossibly ice-free Antarctica.

"The Atlantis question isn't simply one of facts and figures, though. It also involves human aspirations and a longing for something better than the world we know. Followers of the psychic Edgar Cayce hold that the records of Atlantis were buried near the Sphinx and that if only we can recover them, their ancient wisdom will change our lives forever and for the better. Some popular, and fanciful, writing about the Atlanteans ascribed to them powers of levitation, the ability to move immense stones with sound waves, and the use of flying machine some 12 millennia before the Wright brothers."

(Voyages of the Pyramid Builders, Robert M. Schoch & Robert Aquinas McNally, pg. 238)

Ah, but it hasn't always been New Age flakes that have had an interest in the prophecies of  Edgar Cayce. In the 1960s the CIA also investigated some of the sleeping prophet's claims.

"Born in 1877, Edgar's Cayce was, without doubt, one of the United States's most famous of all psychics. He still retains a massive and faithful following, long after his death in 1945 at the age of 67. H. P. Albarelli, Jr., who worked in the White House of President Jimmy Carter, and for the U.S. Department of Treasury, has stated that at some point during the early 1960s researchers of the CIA's Technical Services Staff who were at the forefront of mind-altering research were particularly interested in the work of Cayce. Albarelli has revealed that certain consultants acted undercover at the Association for Research and Enlightenment, which was contained within Cayce's Virginia Beach-based headquarters. Clearly then, someone in the CIA was following the stories of Cayce, which seems to have been born out of research closely paralleling that of Andrija Puharich.

"Certainly, one of Cayce's favored pet subjects was that of the legendary land of Atlantis, and it's equally legendary people -- first referred to in the writings of Plato around 360 BC. According to Cayce's beliefs, in the very distant past, a series of catastrophic events, including one akin to land-engulfing biblical flood, irreversibly decimated the Atlantean society, wherever it may have been situated. And, lord knows, numerous parts of the world have been suggested as viable candidates, including the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, the Azores, and many more. But, regardless of the location of Atlantis, Cayce was sure of the outcome of the disaster: the survivors were forced to start over anew, in parts foreign and exotic. One of those locations, maintained Cayce, was Egypt. Thus, in Cayce's mind, it was the Atlanteans who brought the astonishing technology to early Egypt that eventually allowed for the creation of the Sphinx and the pyramids.

"How did Cayce know this? He claimed, admittedly very controversially, to have been the reincarnation of an Egyptian priest named Ra Ta, supposedly the creator of a healing center in Egypt known as the Temple of Sacrifice. Cayce also stated that his past-life knowledge of Egypt included his awareness of a fantastic hall of records located underneath the right-paw of the Sphinx. Those priceless records, Cayce maintained, told the true and unexpurgated history of Atlantis, its people, and its ultimate destruction thousands of years in the dim and distant past."

(The Pyramids and the Pentagon, Nick Redfern, pgs. 151-153)

Edgar Cayce

The CIA were not, however, the only powerful bureaucracy that would show an interest in the myth of Atlantis. The Nazis, or specifically the notorious Ahnenerbe, had already pondered the Atlantean question years earlier.

"Widely acknowledged by many World War II historians as being the ultimate driving force behind the Nazi's research into religious items of alleged awesome power, Heinrich Himmler was, perhaps, the one high-ranking official in the Third Reich most obsessed with the domain of the occult. In July 1935, Himmler, along with Richard Walther Darre and Dr. Herman Wirth, became a key player in the establishment of the Ahnenerbe, which was the ancestral heritage division of the SS. Interestingly, Himmler had a curious obsession: He believed the Aryans had their origins in the legendary land of Atlantis that so obsessed Edgar Cayce, whose Virginia Beach-based foundation was infiltrated by the CIA and the early 1960s.

"One of the primary goals of the Ahnenerbe was to prove that many early civilizations were seeded, and their fantastic architecture was constructed by ancient Nordics, the very same ones that Himmler believed were the Atlanteans. Or, as the Ahnenerbe interpreted things: The original rulers of the planet from whom the elite of the Nazis could claimed their personal lineage and heritage.

"Of some note, in 1939, the Ahnenerbe planned to investigate and excavate in the mountains of Bolivia, as part of their quest to prove the existence of a very old Aryan super-race... The project was largely prompted by the work of a German archaeologist named Edmund kiss, who was the author of a book titled The Last Queen of Atlantis. Like so many within the SS, which he duly joined after war broke out, Kiss was obsessed with the idea that the Aryans had seeded a worldwide civilization in an ancient era."

(ibid, pgs. 215-216)

the seal of the Ahnenerbe

Ultimately the Bolivian expedition was brought to a premature conclusion in September 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland and Britain declared war on Germany, thus forcing Hitler to divert much-needed manpower and resources elsewhere. Regardless, the interest the Nazi regime and possibly the CIA head in the myths of Atlantis is most curious, to say the least. Part of this interest may have been driven by the reputation of the Atlanteans as pyramid builders.

Pyramids have appeared not just in ancient Egypt but the world over, from Indonesia, China, India, and especially Central and South America in their ancient cultures. Beyond that, many pyramid-like structures have been found in numerous other parts of the world such as the megalithic mounds of Europe and North America and the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, all of which date from deep within antiquity. This has led some researchers to speculate that all of the world's pyramids and like structures have a common original source. Given that the mythological Atlanteans had long been credited with instructing the ancient Egyptians in pyramid building, they are not a bad choice for the source if they did in fact exist.

And all of this of course makes the discovery of a massive pyramid beneath the seas of the Bermuda Triangle especially significant if it is in fact legit. The fact that claims of such a pyramid beneath the seas of the Bermuda Triangle have been making the rounds since the 1960s and that there has been an almost total media blackout of this alleged discovery (either pro or con) now that researchers are finally investigating these claims after decades makes this whole affair all the more strange (and suspect). If this is in fact a hoax, it at least has a bit of cleverness to it for it is just bizarre enough to have the makings of truth. But until more definitive evidence emerges it is best to remain skeptical of the reality of this find all the same.

The Nine

On June 27th, 1953, nine individuals plus a medium gathered at an isolated cabin in the woods outside of Glen Cove, Maine to conduct a seance in which they would claim to make contact with the Great Ennead, the gods the ancient Egyptians had worshipped in the sacred city of Heliopolis. These gods, who were nine in number as well, were part of one great, creator god known as Atum. The other gods consisted of Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nephthys, and sometimes Horus. Communication with these entities was handled by the medium, an Indian gentleman referred to as Dr. D.G. Vinod, who slipped into a trance state at 12:15 AM and began speaking as 'the Nine' by 12:30. Afterwards Dr. Vinod would claim to have no memory of the conversation that preceded between the Ennead Nine and their human counterparts. During the course of the seance the mystical Nine informed the human nine that they would be in charge of bringing about a mystical renaissance on Earth. From there the Nine ventured into quasi-scientific, philosophical constructs that eventually led to the acknowledgement that they, the Grand Ennead, were in fact extraterrestrial beings living in an immense spaceship hovering invisibly over the planet and that the assembled congregation had been selected to promote their agenda on Earth.

Rationally the above scenario must be dismissed as a flight of madness by any who wish to make a claim upon sanity -Surely only the flakiest of New Age flakes would even consider such acts, live alone believe that they were possible. And that's exactly what is so disturbing about the above mentioned seance for the people that attended it may have been many things, but insane is not a strong possibility. Let us simply consider the names of the nine humans who spoke with the Ennead that night:

Henry and Georgia Jackson, Alice Bouverie, Marcella Du Pont, Carl Betz, Vonnie Beck, Arthur and Ruth Young and Andrija Puharich.

For those of you familiar with American high society one name should immediately standout: Du Pont. Marcella Du Pont was in fact a member of the fabulously wealthy clan, but the Du Ponts were hardly the only blue bloods in attendance.

There was also Alice Bouverie who was born Ava Alice Muriel Astor, a descendant of John Jacob Astor, and the daughter of Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, who had died aboard the Titanic when it sank. Her first husband had been an officer in the Czarist Army, Prince Serge Obolensky, who would go on to become a major operator in the OSS during WWII. Needless to say, Mrs. Bouverie was no stranger to the workings of the US intelligence community.

There was also Ruth Young, who had been known as Ruth Forbes Paine of the Forbes family, before marrying Arthur Young. Mr. Young was a famous inventor, working for the Bell Corporation, and had been instrumental in the creation of the Bell Helicopter. But the sway of this couple went well beyond the military-industrial complex. In fact, the enigmatic Arthur Young may be one of the most significant figures of the later 20th century. He was the chief financial patron behind the Nine for many years and a major influence on the New Age movement in general via his mystical writings such as Consciousness and Reality.

Then there's the bizarre connection Arthur and Ruth have to the Kennedy assassination via Michael Paine, Ruth's son from a previous marriage who married a woman also named Ruth.

This Ruth -previously Ruth Hyde before becoming Ruth Paine, was the daughter of a man employed by the Agency for International Development which, according to Peter Levenda in his Sinister Forces -Book One: The Nine, was a well known CIA front. By 1963 Michael and Ruth Paine had produced two children, but were separated while living in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. On February 22 1963 Ruth met Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife, Marina at a party being thrown amongst the emigre White Russian community. In fact, the Oswalds had been invited to the party by George de Mohrenschildt, a White Russian and a petroleum engineer with suspected ties to American intelligence who committed suicide in 1977 shortly before he was scheduled to appear before the House Sub-Committee on Assassinations.

Ruth Paine allegedly built an immediate bound with Marina Oswald and invited her to move into her home in Irving, Texas with her child while Lee Harvey Oswald went to New Orleans to seek work. When he returned to Dallas, Texas it was Ruth Paine who helped Lee get his job at the Texas School Book Depository while Marina and child continued to live with her. When the assassination occurred it was the Paines who led the police to the place where Oswald hid his rifle. In fact, much evidence used to damn Oswald was provided by Ruth Paine such as some of the famous photos of Oswald posing with his rifle, the 'spy camera,' the fake Alex Hidell documents, and so forth.

Peter Levenda, in the previously mentioned book, even goes so far to suggest that Ruth Paine may have taken Lee Harvey Oswald with her up to Philadelphia in 1963 when she stayed with her parents-in-law during her testimony to the Warren Commission:

"...Ruth Paine admitted that at one point Lee Harvey Oswald was considering going to Philadelphia. As soon as she mentions Philadelphia, Allen Dulles [former head of CIA -Recluse] chimes in and opined that it was presumably to find work, to which Ruth replied in the affirmative. This is what is known as 'leading the witness.' Philadelphia, of course, is where Arthur and Ruth Young lived, and Ruth had a habit of going up there every year in the summer... as she did in the summer of 1963. Did Arthur Young invite the young Marine defector to his wooded estate in Paoli?"
(Sinister Forces, pg. 268)

What interest could the man who straddled the line between war profiteer and New Age guru have in the man that would go on to be framed for the assassination of JFK? Why were his children-in-laws seemingly instrumental in the frame built up around Oswald? Perhaps we can gain some further insight into these question by considering the chief architect behind the Nine.
This brings us to the figure of Andrija Puharich, the man that had arranged the 1953 meeting in the first place.

Dr. Puharich had had previous contact with the Nine. His first encounter was also channeled via Dr. Vinod in the Maine woods near Glen Cove, only New Years Eve, 1952. This was part of his work with the Round Table Foundation, a research institute specializing in all kinds of arcane subjects such as cybernetics and ESP. It was founded in 1948 by Puharich with funding from a variety of individuals, most notably former Secretary of Agriculture and later Vice-President Henry Wallace. Wallace, a high-ranking Freemason, served under FDR and is the one responsible for placing the Great Seal with the Masonic capstone on the back of the dollar bill.

After both his first and second sessions of channelling the Nine via Vinod Puharich was drafted into the Army, the second time for nearly two years in which he served as a Captain at Edgewood Arsenal working on research into hallucinogenic drugs and psychic abilities.

Specifically Puharich was attempting to find a drug that would stimulate psychic ability, according to Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince in their marvelous The Stargate Conspiracy. It's also highly likely Puharich began what become a life time association with US intelligence. Prince and Picknett state:

"Ira Einhorn, Puharich's close associate in the 1970s, told us recently that, although Puharich had worked for the CIA during the 1950s, he was no longer doing so twenty years later. However, the evidence points very much in the other direction. Puharich's relationship with intelligence agencies almost certainly did not end in the 1950s. Uri Geller told us at a meeting in his home near Reading in England in 1998 that: 'The CIA brought Puharich in to come and get me out of Israel.' Jack Sarfatti goes further, claiming: 'Puharich was Geller's case officer in America with money provided by Sir John Whitmore.' And according to James Hurtak, via his Academy For Further Sciences, Puharich 'worked with the US intelligence community.' By implication this was during the early 1970s when he, Hurtak, was also working with him."
(The Stargate Conspiracy, pg. 206)

Picknett and Prince speculate that much of Puharich's work as a private citizen on things such as the Round Table Foundation and his research in Mexico on magic mushrooms may have also been on behalf of the US intelligence community.

In was during the trip, in 1956, that Puharich had his next contact with the Nine. He and Arthur Young along with psychic Peter Hurkos were down in Mexico searching for hallucinogenic drugs when they ran into an American couple from Arizona known as the Laugheads. The Laugheads claimed to be in contact with the Nine via a medium back in Arizona and to prove this, they sent a letter to Puharich the next month with detailed descriptions of what was discussed in Puharich's second seance with Vinod in 1953.

Puharich would not again had direct contact with the Nine until 1970 when he became involved with the Israeli stage magician and psychic Uri Geller. In November 1970 Puharich hypnotised the young Israeli and again made contact with the Nine after being informed of their great plans for Geller. The next year Puharich returned to Israel for a longer visit with Geller during which they were in almost frequent contact with the Nine, either channelled through the hypnotised Geller or appearing spontaneously on audio tapes, which then either erased themselves or vanished in plain sight. Ample paranormal activity constantly bombarded Geller and Puharich during this time as well.

Puharich brought Geller back to the US in 1972 so that he could be studied at the Sanford Research Institute. The high weirdness followed them there. The Geller experiments at SRI perfectly coincided with the first CIA experiments in psychic ability there, leading Picknett and Prince to speculate that Geller may have been a part of the SRI remote viewing research.

By 1973 Puharich and Geller went there separate ways. The chief figures in Puharich's communications with the Nine now became Sir John Whitmore and Phyllis Schlemmer, who formed an organization known as Lab Nine. Schlemmer would become the chief medium of the group during this time, after the brief involvement of the Daytona cook Bobby Horne, who I already discussed here. Schlemmer had become convinced of her psychic abilities at a very young age and founded the Psychic Center of Florida in Orlando in 1969 as a kind of school for developing psychics. She would go on to publish The Only Planet of Choice in 1992 that compiled various channellings with the Nine since 1974 and which became a runaway New Age bestseller.

Even by the mid-1970s the Nine had become big business. They had several wealthy backers such as members of the Bronfmans clan, Canada's richest family, and Italian nobleman Baron DiPauli. They would also gain celebrity backers such as Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek. Roddenberry would go on to incorporate references into Star Trek via The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.

Puharich would drop out of the Lab Nine circle in 1980 and would seemingly have no more contact with the Nine from there on out. But by then it wouldn't matter. With wealthy and famous patrons the Nine were well on their way to developing a devoted cult following.

So to recap, we have a brilliant doctor and research scientist drafted into the US intelligence network for which he would continue an on again, off again relationship with till at least the 1970s. Much of his working during this time revolved around psychic ability and drugs and that would help unlock this ability. In the same time he was also channelling entities that claimed to be both the gods of ancient Egypt as well as space aliens, with the backing of wealthy and powerful patrons with deep ties to the military-industrial complex.

You also have the bizarre figure of Arthur Young, New Age guru and war profiteer who's legal relations were closely involved with the man framed for the assassination of JFK. By all accounts Young was a major player in the whole Nine affair, providing much of the funding up till the early 1970s.

So, what are we to make of the Nine and the powerful individuals that have flocked to them?

Picknett and Prince suggest two hypothesises. In the first one, the messages from the Nine are some kind of mass psychological experiment with broader psychological warfare application. In the second hypothesis the Nine are a reality but their message and/or motive may be much different than what the public is being told. The stargate of the title of the Picknett and Prince book alludes to their belief that Puharich was searching for some kind of drug that would open up mental contact with some form of non-human entity. Traditions of this have existed in various cultures for centuries, as I have written of here, concerning the communications that are possible in entheogen induced states.

I have also written extensively on the CIA's involvement in the spread of entheogens here. There are many mainstream explanations for this, eg the chaos and control these drugs can invoke in the wrong hands. But I have often wondered if there was a faction within the intelligence community that promoted the spread of entheogens for something far more mystical, such as mental contact with non-human entities that shamans have often spoken of in conjunction with these drugs.

Puharich was heavily involved in the spread of entheogens to the masses in the late 1950s, even writing a book on the subject entitled The Sacred Mushroom. Is it possible that he and some of his colleagues in the intelligence community sought to spread entheogens to the masses at the urgings of the Nine?

If so then the question becomes, to what purpose would the intelligence community want the masses to experience contact with such entities?