rigorousintuition.ca

I just this week got around to digging into the September National Geographic, and just about had nightmares about the Raging Danger story about spelunkers as they traverse an underground river on an island called New Britain near Papau New Guinea. Anyway, it brought to mind several things, including the Shaver Mysteries (Hollow Earth stories), as well as the 1963 mine cave-in in Pennsylvania which trapped three men. Two survived, David Fellin and Henry Throne. Not sure if Jeff or anyone here has covered this story yet, but it's especially interesting , for a couple of reasons. One is that the two trapped miners apparently had identical "hallucinations" during their very confined days deep underground. The other is that the Navy was quite interested in the incident. The second link appears to be dead, but it can be seen in the cached version. There seem to be some differences between the different versions, so judge for yourself.

http://forum.lowcarber.org/archive/index.php/t-58264
By ED CONRAD edconrad@standardspeaker.com

Today is the 39th anniversary of the dramatic day that
brought a happy ending to what was known as the Sheppton Mine
Disaster -- and the day you're going to learn how the
Pyramids were built.

That, of course, depends if you believe what the late David
Fellin, one of the two entombed miners, revealed once he was
brought to safety after 14 days of entombment with the late
Henry "Hank" Throne.

Fellin, you see, claimed -- and Throne confirmed -- that Pope
John XXIII, who died 10 weeks before the cave-in of Aug. 13,
1963 had appeared to both of them before contact was made with
a rescue crew through a borehole in the sixth day of their
grueling ordeal.

As almost everyone who was at least 10 years old back in 1963
remembers rather well, Fellin and Throne, wearing football
helmets and parachute harnesses, were pulled to the surface
through a borehole in the wee hours of Tuesday, Aug. 27, 1963.

It was by far the greatest news story ever to come out of
the Hazleton area, and the rescue operation and the rescue
were front-page news in almost every newspaper throughout
the Free World.

The day of their rescue, both Fellin and Throne twice had been
interviewed, independently, of each other.

One was by the Associated Press, and later that day by the
U.S. Navy Survival Team out of Bethesda, Md.

In both interviews, Fellin and Throne had discussed all sorts
of strange things they say had transpired while they were
buried alive and waiting to die.

Both revealed, for example, seeing many, many strange men --
not miners -- and even a beautiful marble door.

That they had been hallucinating is entirely out of the
question because the head of the U.S. Navy Survival Team --
Lieut. Richard Anderson, a medical doctor and psychologist --
came to Fellin's bedside in Hazleton State General Hospital
the day after the Navy's interview and told him his story and
Hank's story had meshed perfectly, so it must indeed be true.

Fellin, 58 years old at the time, said he had no idea that
Throne, 24, had been interviewed as well.

The older miner said he wanted to tell the whole world
all the details of the "supernatural" events he had seen
and experienced because he felt every human being should
know of them.

However, he admitted years later that he had clamed up when
Throne's interview appeared in AP newspapers worldwide --
first, before his own recollections were published -- and the
reaction from the scientific community was hostile.

He said he became very angry when scientists and others
claimed Throne had been hallucinating or even bordered on
insanity because of his ordeal.

"If they didn't believe Hank, they certainly aren't going to
believe me," he angrily remarked when Robert Goralski, an
NBC broadcaster, asked him on coast-to-coast radio to reveal
some of those supernatural occurrences while he and Throne
were entombed.

Only more than two decades later did Fellin relent a bit and
reveal a number of astounding things that both he and Throne
experienced.

One was that Pope John XXIII didn't only appear to them in a
flash, then suddenly disappear, but that the genial pontiff
actually had remained with them right up to the time they were
pulled up through the borehole, at least eight full days.

In any event, Fellin did reveal a lot of what he had seen and
experienced while he was, as he has insisted, out of his body.
And that includes what he contends was a trip back in time to
the building of the Pyramids.

Fellin said he was able to see -- but couldn't be seen -- as
he was looking at the Pyramids while they were being built
block by block.

He said not a single multi-ton block had to be brought from
hundreds of miles away, as long theorized, because the blocks
were made right on the spot using wooden forms, just as
sidewalks, for example, are made today.

Fellin said several blocks were being made simultaneously, one
close to him and others in the distance.

He revealed that between 20 and 25 Egyptian-looking men
were carrying buckets and pouring the contents into the
wooden form.

Fellin said some buckets contained what looked like water and
other buckets contained what looked like sand.

However, he expressed doubts that it was plain sand and plain
water, that the fluid may have been "heavy water" used in
nuclear endeavors.

Fellin also revealed, while the Pyramids were being
constructed, there was tremendous vegetation in the distance,
meaning that Egypt was not always a tree-less, barren land.

Another thing, Fellin revealed, is that each group of 20-25
Egyptians working on one particular block were being
supervised by a Caucasian man with a deep tan.

He pointed out that there was an extremely friendly rapport
between the supervisor and the work crew.

Asked if the Caucasian-looking man was an extraterrestrial
from a planet other than earth, he responded in the
affirmative.

When asked how he knows, he simply responded by saying that
he "knows."

It may be very interesting to mention that the riddle of
how the Pyramids were constructed has been an almost
endless question.

Critics have said it would have been impossible to move the
multi-ton blocks to the site from very far away and even more
impossible, without modern technology, to lift them higher and
higher as each pyramid rose in elevation.

But just over the past few weeks, a longtime researcher doing
an exhaustive study on how the Pyramids were constructed has
revealed that he has come to the conclusion that they were
made by pouring "cement," just as Dave Fellin described while
on the trip out of his body.

It should be mentioned, rather emphatically, that David Fellin
has sworn on the Holy Bible that what he had seen and
experienced is absolutely true.

It should also be mentioned, rather emphatically, that he had
taken two sets of polygraph tests about his "supernatural"
experiences while entombed and passed both of them with
flying colors.



http://archives.pottsville.com/archives ... rescue.htm
Throne Tells How He and Fellin Survived Entombment

http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/mol-evol/1 ... 04520.html
PROOF OF LIFE AFTER DEATH
clip

"...Among the remarkable things Fellin had told Dr. Kubler-Ross during a
day-long conversation in her home in Headwaters, Va., were the two
separate occasions that he insisted he and Throne had been out of
their physical bodies at the same time, during which they actually had
engaged in conversation...."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 50,00.html
Start of a Legend?

http://www.ufoarea.com/hollow_earth_aliens.html
Aliens May Live Inside Our Hollow Earth

Here's the cached version of the dead link above:

Throne Tells How He and Fellin Survived Entombment
Hallucianations, Deliriums, Despair, Jubilation
Editor's Note: In August of 1963, miners Henry Throne, David Fellin and Louis Bova were trapped more than 300 feet underground when the Sheppton mine collapsed. Throne and Fellin were rescued after spending two weeks underground. Bova was never found. This is Throne's account of the story, as he told it to the Associated Press. It was originally published in the August 23, 1963 edition of The Pottsville REPUBLICAN
By Henry Throne
As told to the Associated Press

Hazleton -- There were times when we saw people that weren't there and lights that weren't there and doors that weren't there.

Imagine seeing a door like a regular house down in the bottom of a mine!

There was a time we heard rain and it really was rain coming down the drainage pipes and we thought the water would back up and flood the mine and drown us.

And while it was raining, I got mad-I must've been off my rocker a little-I yelled at Davey, "Davey, I'm coming home. I'm going alone if you don't want to come."

But, of course, I wasn't going anywhere. Not then. We were still more than 300 feet down. We still had a week to go before we could stand and walk again, not just sit and crawl, before we could breath clear air again and see real light again.

Got mixed up later

But maybe I better start at the beginning. That's the only way I can get it clear in my own mind. So much got mixed up later we couldn't tell day from the night or Monday from Sunday.

That first day, Aug. 13, I went to work about 7:15 in the morning. It was a nice sunny day. I had no special thoughts, no hunches about something bad. It was just an ordinary working day.

We-that's Dave Fellin, Louis Bova and me-we got down in the hole about 7:30 and by 8 we had filled the first buggy (a small wagon, carrying coal to the surface). We were on the bottom of the mine, in a tunnel, where the sump water collects. Davey and I were on the right side of the shaft and Louis was on the left, separated by the buggy tracks.

Buggy was Coming Back

Louis rapped three times for the buggy to go up and dumped the coal. Coming down, it got only half way down. That's when the big rumble started. And all hell broke loose. The timbers on the wall next to us caved in and the timbers on the ceiling above us came down. We just managed to step aside in time as the big chunks of wood and coal and stone fell wildly around us.

We could see Louis on the other side until the power line to our work lights broke. For the next couple of hours we could see a little around us with the lights on our helmets. But then they burned out. Our matches wouldn't burn down there. That was the end of the light for the next five and a-half days. In the first hour and a half, we just sat there against the wall while the debris piled higher before us in the tunnel. The rumbling from the cave-in lasted that long. There were others later.

Louis Didn't Answer

I hollered for Louis but there was no answer. After a while we started crawling over the debris, all our tools-the picks, the bars, the shovels, and our lunch pails-were lost under the pile except for a mason hammer and a hatchet. The hammer broke soon afterward. All we had was the hatchet to cut our way over the junk.

We started crawling around in the dark looking for a way out. But we kept crawling around like that for most six days looking for a way out.

To keep warm, I'd sit with my legs spread and Davey would sit between my legs with his back to me and I'd breathe on his back and neck. All the time we're rocking back and forth, also to keep warm. Then Davey would switch and do the same for me. We'd do this for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. Then we'd stop but only for five minutes, say, because then we'd be cold again. Most times it felt like about 30 degrees above zero.

Slept Arms About Other

To keep warm, we'd sleep face to face with our arms around each other. We'd sleep maybe half an hour and then the cold would wake us and we'd start rocking again to get some circulation. I'd sleep, I'd wake up, and I'd see all kinds of light and the actual figures of people. They now tell me these were hallucinations but the crazy thing is that Davey would see the same things I did.

The lights and the figures always were in front of us but the more we crawled toward them the further away they got. For example, I saw this man, or the dark shape of a man with a light on his helmet. I yelled, "Show me some light over here! Over here!" Davey saw him too, but the shape of the man got smaller and smaller as we crawled toward him and then he was gone altogether.

Fifth Day The Worst

The fifth day was the worst. I think that was the closest we came to death. That's when it started raining and we could hear it coming down the drainage pipes and we thought we'd be drowned. Thank God it rained only about 20 minutes.

But in that time I started running around wild. That's when I saw a door, just like a regular house door.

"Davey!" I yelled, "let's go there."

I crawled as fast as I could toward it but suddenly I found myself bumping into just another piece of timber. That's when I got the bruise under my eye.

I was so frightened, I just went about getting out and just concentrating on that.

Ate Bark From Timber

But suddenly early in the sixth day, suddenly I got hungry. I ate some bark from an old timber. It tasted terrible. Other times we just sucked the water out of the bark.

In the first few days I could tell, looking at my fourescent watch, what day it was. But down there in the dark I got all mixed up about morning and night and finally the days themselves.

On about 3:15 of probably the sixth day -- don't ask me if it was a.m. or p.m. -- I heard Louis holler out. This was the first and only time we heard him. He yelled "Davey and Hank. Where are you? This is Louis, I got a light. I'll drop it five feet in front of you."

Couldn't Find Him

It sounded like it was coming from above. Now, this was real. I'll admit other things were imagined. But this was real. I actually heard Louis. But we couldn't find him or his light. And we never heard him again.

What kept us going down there? I can only guess, It must have been our will power, our strong wish to get out. We prayed two or three times an hour "Dear Lord, help us get out, help us get out," I said aloud over and over.

By about the sixth day, I figure now, we were just about where we started when we began looking for a way out. We were now in a chamber about six feet long and six feet wide and almost six feet high on the high side. We kept shoring up the ceiling with timber and as we did the ceiling kept getting lower until in the last day we had only 18 inches between our heads and the roof of the tunnel.

Microphone Dropped Down

Then suddenly on the sixth day came the miracle. We hadn't heard the first drill coming down. First thing we knew a microphone was dropped down a hole near us. We heard voices yelling our names from above.

We crawled as fast as we could over the debris to the mike hanging from the first six-inch hole. We kept yelling, "here we come, here we come," as we crawled over to that hole.

Upon the surface they asked us what we needed and soon we got clothes and hamburgers and soup and coffee. We weren't cheering yet. We were far from certain of getting out then because so far only a six-inch hole had reached us.

Lights Come Next

Work lights were lowered on a cord. Later they sent us flashlights.

The first hole was just for food and communications. The next day they started drilling a 12-inch hole. We could hear it above. But this drill hit a sulphur ball-that's as hard as a diamond-so they quit trying in this post.

The next day we could hear them drilling again and they got deep enough but they missed us on direction.

They moved the drill a few feet and this time, thank God, they reached us with the first 12-inch hole, the first escape hole.

This was 10 days and 6 and a half hours after the cave-in trapped us.

We could hear the drill coming all the way down. It felt like it was coming directly at my head. And suddenly there it was, busting through, just about two or three feet away.

This time we cheered. This time we shook hands. Now for the first time I was beginning to feel optimistic.

They sent us heating pads (powered by an electric line from above) and one sleeping bag. One of us would work while the other slept. They sent us timbers and boards and nails and we kept shoring up our ceiling.

We were working 14-16 hours a day. We were exhausted but we felt like signing. I remember singing "Mona Lisa" and S"outh of the Border" and "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling."

And now it was Monday, Aug. 26. It was 6:01 p.m. and they told us and the big reamer that was widening the hole to 18 inches was only six inches over us. Twenty minutes later that big gorgeous reamer broke through. I yelled up "Send us a line down. I'm coming up!"

The Day of Rescue

Finally, the coveralls and harnesses came down and we put them on. I greased Davey's shoulders and arms and hips and he did the same for me.

And now it was 2 a.m. and I was being hauled up slowly. They stopped me two or three times and it seemed forever. Then they started again and I was spinning. Finally, there is was -- the surface, the air, the people.

As the air hit me, I felt dizzy and fell into that basket-type stretcher. I was thinking I'm out now, I'm out now, and I cried for the first time.

While I was down there they asked me if I'd go back to work in the mines and I said I would. But I'm not. I guess I'm afraid. I'll work anywhere except a mine.

Until now, I never went to church more than a couple of times in my life.

Now I'll go regular.

I want to keep thanking God.

Amazingly cool stuff -- thanks very much for turning me on to this.

Really amazing story.

Excellent post... Good Work Chig.

Thanks,

Telexx

Since I mentioned Hollow Earth Theory, not related to the mine cave-in story, I will point readers to one of the most popular Hollow Earthers, Richard Shaver of the Shaver mysteries. Here's Wiki on Shaver (see link for entire article):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_S._Shaver

Richard Sharpe Shaver (b. 1907 Berwick, Pennsylvania, d. 1975 Summit, Arkansas) was an American writer and artist.

He achieved notoriety in the years following World War II as the author of controversial stories which were printed in science fiction magazines, (primarily Amazing Stories), wherin Shaver claimed that he had personal experience with a sinister, ancient civilization that lived in caverns under the earth. The controversy stemmed from the fact that Shaver and his editor/publisher Ray Palmer claimed Shaver's writings, while presented in the guise of fiction, were fundamentally true: the core of Shaver's stories were promoted by Palmer as "The Shaver Mystery".

Very little is reliably known about Shaver's early life. He claimed to have worked at an automobile factory, where, in 1932, odd things began to occur. As Bruce Lanier Write notes, Shaver "began to notice that one of the welding guns on his job site, 'by some freak of its coil's field atunements,' was allowing him to read the thoughts of the men working around him. More frighteningly, he then picked up the telepathic record of a torture session conducted by malign entities in caverns deep within the earth." (According to Bakun, Shaver offered inconsistent accounts of how he first learned of the hidden cavern world, but that the assembly line story was the "most common version." (Bakun, 116) Shaver said he then quit his job, and became a hobo for a period.

Bakun writes that "Shaver was hospitalized briefly for psychiatric problems in 1934, but there does not appear to have been a clear diagnosis." (Bakun, 115) Bakun notes that afterwards, Shaver's whereabouts and actions cannot be reliably traced until the early 1940s.

In 1943, Shaver wrote a letter to Amazing. He claimed to have uncovered an ancient language he called "Mantog," a sort of Proto-World language which was the source of all Earthly language. In Mantog, each sound had a hidden meaning, and by applying this formula to any word in any language, one could decode a secret meaning to any word, name or phrase. Palmer applied the Mantog formula to several words, and said he realized Shaver was on to something.

Palmer wrote to Shaver, asking how he had learned of Mantog. Shaver responded with a 10,000 word document entitled "A Warning to Future Man." Shaver wrote of tremendously advanced pre-historic races who had built cavern cities inside Earth before abandoning Earth for another planet. Those ancients also abandoned some of their own diseased offspring here, who degenerated over time into a population of mentally impaired sadists known as Dero--short for detrimental robots. These Dero still lived in the cave cities, according to Shaver, kidnapping surface-dwelling people by the thousands for meat or torture, and using the fantastic "ray" machines that the great ancient races left behind to project tormenting thoughts and voices into our minds. Women especially were singled out for brutal treatment, including rape, and Dash notes that "Sado-masochism was one of the prominent themes of Shaver's writings." (Dash, 229) Though generally confined to their caves, Shaver claimed that the Deros sometimes traveled by spaceships or rockets, and had dealings with equally evil extraterrestrial beings. Shaver claimed first-hand knowledge of the Dero and their caves, insisting he had been a prisoner for several years.

Palmer edited and rewrote the manuscript, increasing the total word count to a novella length 31,000. Palmer insisted that he did nothing to alter the core elements of Shaver's story, but that he only added an exciting plot line so the story would not read "like a dull recitation." (Bakun, 116) retitled "I Remember Lemuria!"; it was published in March, 1945 issue of Amazing.[1] The issue sold out, and generated quite a response: between 1945 and 1949, letters poured in attesting to the truth of Shaver's claims (tens of thousands of letters, according to Palmer). The correspondents, too, had heard strange voices or encountered denizens of the hollow Earth. One of the letters to Amazing was from a woman who claimed to have gone into a deep subbasement of a Paris, France building via a secret elevator. After months of rape and other torture, the woman was freed by a group of Teros. (Dash, 230) Another letter claiming involvement with Deros came from Fred Crisman, later to gain notoriety for his role in the Maury Island Incident and the John F. Kennedy Assassination. "Shaver Mystery Club" chapters sprang up in several cities. The controversy gained some notice in the mainstream press at the time, including a mention in a 1951 issue of Life magazine.

Palmer claimed that Amazing saw huge boosts in circulation because of the Shaver Mystery, and the magazine emphasized the Shaver Mystery for several years. Bakun notes that, by any measure, the Shaver Mystery was successful in increasing sales of Amazing. There was disagreement as to the precise increase in circulation (with Shaver being accused of exaggerating the total), but Bakun notes that reliable sources reflect an increase in monthly circulation from about 135,000 to 185,000. (Bakun, 116)

Shaver's rambling manuscripts were rewritten by Palmer, both to make them more readable, and to remove or downplay most of the explicit sexual content. From 1945 to 1948, Bakun notes that about 75% of the issues of Amazing featured Shaver Mystery content--sometimes to the near-exclusion of any other topic. Historian Mike Dash declares that "Shaver's tales were amongst the wildest ever spun, even in the pages of the pulp science fiction magazines of the period." (Dash, 229)

Many in the community of science fiction fans felt compelled to publicly condemn the Shaver Mystery as "the Shaver Hoax." In fact, Palmer printed a number of critical or skeptical letters sent to Amazing, and he and other contributors occasionaly rebutted or replied to such letters in print. As Bruce Lanier Wright notes, "The young Harlan Ellison, later a famously abrasive writer, allegedly badgered [Palmer] into admitting that the Shaver Mystery was a 'publicity grabber'; when the story came out, Palmer angrily responded that this was hardly the same thing as calling it a hoax." [2] Dash writes,"critics of the 'Shaver Mystery' were quick to point out that its author was suffering from several of the classic symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia, and that many of the letters pouring into Amazing recounting personal experiences that backed up the author's stories patently came from the sorts of people who would otherwise spend their time claiming that they were being persecuted by invisible voices or their neighbor's dog." (Dash, 229)

I just wanted to chime in with the others and thank you for the interesting story, chiggerbit. Something about the experiences of the three men reminds me of the combined effects of a sensory deprivation chamber* and a Faraday cage.


On edit: I should say "at least one of the effects".


I also thought you might like the following, it is the opening page of the blog of a scientist who is promiting the theory that the pyramids are made of concrete.

Barsoum: Pyramid Blog

Dear Reader:
I decided to start this blog to shed some more light on the research that we recently published in the J. of the American Ceramic Society and funded by the Ceramics Division of the National Science Foundation. It is important to emphasize the following:

a) our technical results are unambiguous: the pyramid stones have regions with chemistries and other feature that not only we did not find in the natural samples collected and examined from the vicinity of the pyramids, but more important, chemistries and features that do NOT exist in sedimentary rocks, such as limestone! As far as I am aware, no geologist has come out saying that the chemistries and features we reported can exist in natural limestone. If you are aware of such a study - published or otherwise - please let me know.

b) the samples we looked at are NOT recent renovations for two simple reasons: First, they do not remotely resemble Portland cement or concrete. Second, and much more important, I am not aware of anybody that can actually make this kind of reconstituted stone at this time. There is no doubt or debate. One of the samples had a layer of calcium phosphate that can be obtained from bones - on the surface! If anybody can show me a microstructure that even comes close to what we reported, published or not, please let me know.

c) The presentation that can be found at http://www.mse.drexel.edu/max/PyramidPresentation.htm is not the evidence we are talking about. That can be found in - highly abbreviated form - the last 4 slides of the presentation. It is not a substitute to the technical paper.

d) The purpose of the presentation is simply to add, what I call additional circumstantial evidence to the case.

e) Over the past 4 years we looked at chemical analyses, over 1000 photomicrographs (scanning electron microscope pictures) and other characterizations.

f) Before putting words in my mouth, it is imperative that the facts be checked and double checked. And the facts can be found in the scientific paper - solely. It is not what was published in the NY Times or the Philadelphia Inquirer or any other paper or blog. The presentation is not evidence; it only becomes evidence when the rocks are tested and found to be not natural.


I want to make an analogy. If this were a murder case, do you think we provided enough evidence to re-open the case? If you think that is so, then I have accomplished my mission. That is all we are asking. Let me emphasize again: I think more work needs to be done by us our others. If our work is confirmed by others, that represents progress; if not then we need to understand where the discrepancy comes from. I am a scientist: I have no problem changing my mind if new evidence proves me wrong. I am not married to my conclusion. If anything, our current work shows the danger of falling in love with your own theory.


Our work in no way diminishes what the Ancient Egyptians accomplished. To reconstitute a stone that not only fools generations of experts, tourists and scientists, but does so even after 4500 years is simply stunning.


Now, if you are still looking for a huge mystery, try and figure out how the Ancient Egyptians cut natural granite with nothing harder than copper. How they dragged roughly 70 ton granite blocks (the weight of a locomotive!) without wheels and placed them on top of the King's chamber is ...... I have run out of superlatives; your turn....



For clarification, Barsoum is not disputing that those stones are cut granite.


Lets for a minute ASSUME we are wrong - that will become clear with time. However, geopolymers are absolutely real; we make them in the lab reproducibly. We add dirt, dirt, dirt to water and we get a concrete that rivals Portland cement concrete. In contradistinction to the latter, we produce very little CO2. So if our work educates the world about this green cement, then I have done some good. Finally, if this technology is used by the destitute of the world - it is, after all, a 5000 year old technology, how complex or expensive can it be? - to build esthetically pleasing and long lasting homes and shelters, then I plead guilty. Ironically then, this study of 4500 year old rocks is not about the past, but about the future.

URL: http://pyramids.blog.com/

Anybody else wonder why it was so cold down that deep in the earth? Well, on second thought, I suppose 42 degrees would feel pretty darned cold to someone who was that confined.

And thanks for that bit, Iroquois. I thought I had seen something like that VERY recently, but couldn't remember where I had read it.

The Man Who Invented Flying Saucers
by John A. Keel



"In 1947, the editor of Amazing Stories watched in astonishment
as the things he had been fabricating for years in his magazine
suddenly came true! ...Once the belief system had been set up it
became self-perpetuating. The people beleaguered by mysterious
rays were joined by the wishful thinkers who hoped that living,
compassionate beings existed out there beyond the stars. They
didn't need any real evidence. The belief itself was enough to
sustain them."



North America's "Bigfoot" was nothing more than an Indian legend
until a zoologist named Ivan T. Sanderson began collecteing
contemporary sightings of the creature in the early 1950s,
publishing the reports in a series of popular magazine articles.
He turned the tall, hairy biped into a household word, just as
British author Rupert T. Gould rediscovered sea serpents in the
1930s and, through his radio broadcasts, articles, and books,
brought Loch Ness to the attention of the world. Another writer
named Vincent Gaddis originated the Bermuda Triangle in his 1965
book, _Invisible Horizons: Strange Mysteries of the Sea_.
Sanderson and Charles Berlitz later added to the Triangle lore,
and rewriting their books became a cottage industry among hack
writers in the United States.

Charles Fort put bread on the table of generations of science
fiction writers when, in his 1931 book 'Lo!', he assembled the
many reports of objects and people strangely transposed in time
and place, and coined the term "teleportation." And it took a
politician named Ignatius Donnelly to revive lost Atlantis and
turn it into a popular subject (again and again and again). (1)

But the man responsible for the most well-known of all such
modern myths -- flying saucers -- has somehow been forgotten.
Before the first flying saucer was sighted in 1947, he suggested
the idea to the American public. Then he converted UFO reports
from what might have been a Silly Season phenomenon into a
subject, and kept that subject alive during periods of total
public disinterest.

His name was Raymond A. Palmer.

Born in 1911, Ray Palmer suffered severe injuries that left him
dwarfed in stature and partially crippled. He had a difficult
childhood because of his infirmities and, like many isolated
young men in those pre-television days, he sought escape in
"dime novels," cheap magazines printed on coarse paper and filled
with lurid stories churned out by writers who were paid a penny
a word. He became an avid science fiction fan, and during the
Great Depression of the 1930s he was active in the world of
fandom -- a world of mimeographed fanzines and heavy
correspondence. (Science fiction fandom still exists and is
very well organized with well-attended annual conventions and
lavishly printed fanzines, some of which are even issued weekly.)
In 1930, he sold his first science fiction story, and in 1933
he created the Jules Verne Prize Club which gave out annual
awards for the best achievements in sci-fi. A facile writer
with a robust imagination, Palmer was able to earn many pennies
during the dark days of the Depression, undoubtedly buoyed by
his mischievous sense of humor, a fortunate development
motivated by his unfortunate physical problems. Pain was his
constant companion.

In 1938, the Ziff-Davis Publishing Company in Chicago purchased
a dying magazine titled _Amazing Stories_. It had been created
in 1929 by the inestimable Hugo Gernsback, who is generally
acknowledged as the father of modern science fiction. Gernsback,
an electrical engineer, ran a small publishing empire of magazines
dealing with radio and technical subjects. (he also founded
_Sexology_, a magazine of soft-core pornography disguised as
science, which enjoyed great success in a somewhat conservative
era.) It was his practice to sell -- or even give away -- a
magazine when its circulation began to slip.

Although _Amazing Stories_ was one of the first of its kind, its
readership was down to a mere 25,000 when Gernsback unloaded it
on Ziff-Davis. William B. Ziff decided to hand the editorial
reins to the young science fiction buff from Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. At the age of 28, Palmer found his life's work.

Expanding the pulp magazine to 200 pages (and as many as 250
pages in some issues), Palmer deliberately tailored it to the
tastes of teenage boys. He filled it with nonfiction features
and filler items on science and pseudo-science in addition to
the usual formula short stories of BEMs (Bug-Eyed Monsters) and
beauteous maidens in distress. Many of the stories were written
by Palmer himself under a variety of pseudonyms such as Festus
Pragnell and Thorton Ayre, enabling him to supplement his meager
salary by paying himself the usual penny-a-word. His old
cronies from fandom also contributed stories to the magazine
with a zeal that far surpassed their talents.

In fact, of the dozen or so science magazines then being sold on
the newsstands, _Amazing Stories_ easily ranks as the very worst
of the lot. Its competitors, such as _Startling Stories_,
_Thrilling Wonder Stories_, _Planet Stories_ and the venerable
_Astounding_ (now renamed _Analog_) employed skilled,
experienced professional writers like Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov,
and L. Ron Hubbard (who later created Dianetics and founded
Scientology). _Amazing Stories_ was garbage in comparison and
hardcore sci-fi fans tended to sneer at it. (2)

The magazine might have limped through the 1940s, largely
ignored by everyone, if not for a single incident. Howard
Browne, a television writer who served as Palmer's associate
editor in those days, recalls: "early in the 1940s, a letter
came to us from Dick Shaver purporting to reveal the "truth"
about a race of freaks, called "Deros," living under the surface
of the earth. Ray Palmer read it, handed it to me for comment.
I read a third of it, tossed it in the waste basket. Ray, who
loved to show his editors a trick or two about the business,
fished it out of the basket, ran it in _Amazing_, and a flood of
mail poured in from readers who insisted every word of it was
true because they'd been plagued by Deros for years. (3)

Actually, Palmer had accidentally tapped a huge, previously
unrecognized audience. Nearly every community has at least one
person who complains constantly to the local police that someone
- usually a neighbor -- is aiming a terrible ray gun at their
house or apartment. This ray, they claim, is ruining their
health, causing their plants to die, turning their bread moldy,
making their hair and teeth fall out, and broadcasting voices
into their heads. [To the Reichian concept of DOR (Dead Orgone),
stir in the bizarre sci-fi tales of "Alex Constantine," and
Kathy Kasten, et al, for a latter-day equivalent of the Shaverian
Dero Ray-Gun Attack mythos -B:.B:.) Psychiatrists are very
familiar with these "ray" victims and relate the problem with
paranoid-schizophrenia. For the most part, these paranoiacs are
harmless and usually elderly. Occasionally, however, the voices
they hear urge them to perform destructive acts, particularly
arson. They are a distrustful lot, loners by nature, and very
suspicious of everyone, including the government and all figures
of authority. In earlier times, they thought they were hearing
the voice of God and/or the Devil. Today they often blame the
CIA or space beings for their woes. They naturally gravitate to
eccentric causes and organizations which reflect their own fears
and insecurities, advocating bizarre political philosophies and
reinforcing their peculiar belief systems. Ray Palmer
unintentionally gave thousands of these people focus to their
lives.

Shaver's long, rambling letter claimed that while he was welding
(4) he heard voices which explained to him how the underground
Deros were controlling life on the surface of the earth through
the use of fiendish rays. Palmer rewrote the letter, making a
novelette out of it, and it was published in the March 1945
issue under the title: "I Remember Lemuria -- by Richard
Shaver."

The Shaver Mystery was born.

-=oOo=-

Somehow the news of Shaver's discovery quickly spread beyond
science fiction circles and people who had never before bought
a pulp magazine were rushing to their local newsstands. The
demand for _Amazing Stories_ far exceeded the supply and Ziff-
Davis had to divert paper supplies (remember there were still
wartime shortages) from other magazines so they could increase
the press run of AS.

"Palmer traveled to Pennsylvania to talk to Shaver," Howard
Brown later recalled, "found him sitting on reams of stuff he'd
written about the Deros, bought every bit of it and contracted
for more. I thought it was the sickest crap I'd run into.
Palmer ran it and doubled the circulation of Amazing within four
months."

By the end of 1945, _Amazing Stories_ was selling 250,000 copies
per month, an amazing circulation for a science fiction pulp
magazine. Palmer sat up late at night, rewriting Shaver's
material and writing other short stories about the Deros under
pseudonyms. Thousands of letters poured into the office. Many
of them offered supporting "evidence" for the Shaver stories,
describing strange objects they had seen in the sky and strange
encounters they had had with alien beings. It seemed that many
thousands of people were aware of the existence of some distinctly
non-terrestrial group in our midst. Paranoid fantasies were mixed
with tales that had the uncomfortable ring of truth. The "Letters
-to-the-Editor" section was the most interesting part of the
publication. Here is a typical contribution from the issue for
June 1946:



Sirs:

I flew my last combat mission on May 26 [1945] when I was shot
up over Bassein and ditched my ship in Ramaree roads off Chedubs
Island. I was missing five days. I requested leave at Kashmere
(sic). I and Capt. (deleted by request) left Srinagar and went
to Rudok then through the Khese pass to the northern foothills
of the Karakoram. We found what we were looking for. We knew
what we were searching for.

For heaven's sake, drop the whole thing! You are playing with
dynamite. My companion and I fought our way out of a cave with
submachine guns. I have two 9" scars on my left arm that came
from wounds given me in the cave when I was 50 feet from a
moving object of any kind and in perfect silence. The muscles
were nearly ripped out. How? I don't know. My friend has a
hole the size of a dime in his right bicep. It was seared
inside. How we don't know. But we both believe we know more
about the Shaver Mystery than any other pair. You can imagine
my fright when I picked up my first copy of _Amazing Stories_
and see you splashing words about the subject.



The identity of the author of this letter was withheld by request.
Later Palmer revealed his name: Fred Lee Crisman. He had
inadvertently described the effects of a laser beam -- even
though the laser wasn't invented until years later. Apparently
Crisman was obsessed with Deros and death rays long before Kenneth
Arnold sighted the "first" UFO in June 1947.

In September 1946, _Amazing Stories_ published a short article
by W.C. Hefferlin, "Circle-Winged Plane," describing experiments
with a circular craft in 1927 in San Francisco. Shaver's
(Palmer's) contribution to that issue was a 30,000 word novelette,
"Earth Slaves to Space," dealing with spaceships that regularly
visited the Earth to kidnap humans and haul them away to some
other planet. Other stories described amnesia, an important
element in the UFO reports that still lay far in the future, and
mysterious men who supposedly served as agents for those
unfriendly Deros.

A letter from army lieutenant Ellis L. Lyon in the September 1946
issue expressed concern over the psychological impact of the
Shaver Mystery.

What I am worried about is that there are a few, and perhaps
quite large number of readers who may accept this Shaver
Mystery as being founded on fact, even as Orson Welles put
across his invasion from Mars, via radio some years ago. It
is of course, impossible for the reader to sift out in your
"Discussions" and "Reader Comment" features, which are actually
letters from readers and which are credited to an _Amazing
Stories_ staff writer, whipped up to keep alive interest in
your fictional theories. However, if the letters are generally
the work of readers, it is distressing to see the reaction you
have caused in their muddled brains. I refer to the letters
from people who have "seen" the exhaust trails of rocket ships
or "felt" the influence of radiations from underground sources.

Palmer assigned artists to make sketches of objects described by
readers and disc-shaped flying machines appeared on the covers
of his magazine long before June 1947. So we can note that a
considerable number of people -- millions -- were exposed to the
flying saucer concept before the national news media was even
aware of it. Anyone who glanced at the magazines on a newsstand
and caught a glimpse of the saucers-adorned _Amazing Stories_
cover had the image implanted in his subconscious. In the
course of the two years between march 1945 and June 1947,
millions of Americans had seen at least one issue of _Amazing
Stories_ and were aware of the Shaver Mystery with all of its
bewildering implications. Many of these people were out
studying the empty skies in the hopes that they, like other
_Amazing Stories_ readers, might glimpse something wondrous.
World War II was over and some new excitement was needed.
Raymond Palmer was supplying it -- much to the alarm of Lt.
Lyon and Fred Crisman.

-=oOo=-

Aside from Palmer's readers, two other groups were ready to
serve as cadre for the believers. About 1,500 members of
Tiffany Thayer's Fortean Society knew that weird aerial objects
had been sighted throughout history and some of them were
convinced that this planet was under surveillance by beings from
another world. Tiffany Thayer was rigidly opposed to Franklin
Roosevelt and loudly proclaimed that almost everything was a
government conspiracy, so his Forteans were fully prepared to
find new conspiracies hidden in the forthcoming UFO mystery.
They would become instant experts, willing to educate the press
and public when the time came. The second group were spiritual-
ists and students of the occult, headed by Dr. Meade Layne, who
had been chatting with the space people at seances through trance
mediums and Ouija boards. They knew the space ships were coming
and hardly surprised when "ghost rockets" were reported over
Europe in 1946. (5) Combined, these three groups represented a
formidable segment of the population.

On June 24, 1947, Kenneth Arnold made his famous sighting of a
group of "flying saucers" over Mt. Rainier, and in Chicago Ray
Palmer watched in astonishment as the newspaper clippings poured
in from every state. The things that he had been fabricating
for his magazine were suddenly coming true!

For two weeks, the newspapers were filled with UFO reports.
Then they tapered off and the Forteans howled "Censorship!" and
"Conspiracy!" But dozens of magazine writers were busy compiling
articles on this new subject and their pieces would appear
steadily during the next year. One man, who had earned his
living writing stories for the pulp magazines in the 1930s, saw
the situation as a chance to break into the "slicks" (better
quality magazines printed on glossy or "slick" paper). Although
he was 44 years old at the time of Pearl Harbor, he served as a
Captain in the marines until he was in a plane accident.
Discharged as a Major (it was the practice to promote officers
one grade when they retired), he was trying to resume his
writing career when Ralph Daigh, an editor at _True_ magazine,
assigned him to investigate the flying saucer enigma. Thus, at
the age of 50, Donald E. Keyhhoe entered Never-Never-Land. His
article, "Flying Saucers Are Real," would cause a sensation, and
Keyhoe would become an instant UFO personality.

That same year, Palmer decided to put out an all-flying saucer
issue of _Amazing Stories_. Instead, the publisher demanded
that he drop the whole subject after, according to Palmer, two
men in Air Force uniforms visited him. Palmer decided to
publish a magazine of his own. Enlisting the aid of Curtis
Fuller, editor of a flying magazine, and a few other friends, he
put out the first issue of _Fate_ in the spring of 1948. A
digest-sized magazine printed on the cheapest paper, _Fate_ was
as poorly edited as _Amazing Stories_ and had no impact on the
reading public. But it was the only newsstand periodical that
carried UFO reports in every issue. The _Amazing Stories_
readership supported the early issues wholeheartedly.

In the fall of 1948, the first flying saucer convention was held
at the Labor Temple on 14th Street in New York City. Attended
by about thirty people, most of whom were clutching the latest
issue of _Fate_, the meeting quickly dissolved into a shouting
match. (6) Although the flying saucer mystery was only a year
old, the side issues of government conspiracy and censorship
already dominated the situation because of their strong emotional
appeal. The U.S. Air Force had been sullenly silent throughout
1948 while, unbeknownst to the UFO advocates, the boys at Wright-
Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio were making a sincere effort to
untangle the mystery.

When the Air Force investigation failed to turn up any tangible
evidence (even though the investigators accepted the
extraterrestrial theory) General Hoyt Vandenburg, Chief of the
Air Force and former head of the CIA, ordered a negative report
to release to the public. The result was Project Grudge,
hundreds of pages of irrelevant nonsense that was unveiled
around the time _True_ magazine printed Keyhoe's pro-UFO article.
Keyhoe took this personally, even though his article was
largely a rehash of Fort's book, and Ralph Daigh had decided to
go with the extraterrestrial hypothesis because it seemed to be
the most commercially acceptable theory (that is, it would sell
magazines).

-=oOo=-

Palmer's relationship with Ziff-Davis was strained now that he
was publishing his own magazine. "When I took over from Palmer,
in 1949," Howard Browne said, "I put an abrupt end to the Shaver
Mystery -- writing off over 7,000 dollars worth of scripts."

Moving to Amherst, Wisconsin, Palmer set up his own printing
plant and eventually he printed many of those Shaver stories in
his _Hidden Worlds_ series. As it turned out, postwar inflation
and the advent of television was killing the pulp magazine
market anyway. In the fall of 1949, hundreds of pulps suddenly
ceased publication, putting thousands of writers and editors out
of work. _Amazing Stories_ has often changed hands since but is
still being published, and is still paying its writers a penny a
word. (7)

For some reason known only to himself, Palmer chose not to use
his name in _Fate_. Instead, a fictitious "Robert N. Webster"
was listed as editor for many years. Palmer established another
magazine, _Search_, to compete with _Fate_. _Search_ became a
catch-all for inane letters and occult articles that failed to
meet _Fate's_ low standards.

Although there was a brief revival of public and press interest
in flying saucers following the great wave of the summer of 1952,
the subject largely remained in the hands of cultists, cranks,
teenagers, and housewives who reproduced newspaper clippings in
little mimeographed journals and looked up to Palmer as their
fearless leader.

In June, 1956, a major four-day symposium on UFOs was held in
Washington, D.C. It was unquestionably the most important UFO
affair of the 1950s and was attended by leading military men,
government officials and industrialists. Men like William Lear,
inventor of the Lear Jet [Yup, John "The Horrible Truth" Lear's
dad -B:.B:.], and assorted generals, admirals and former CIA
heads freely discussed the UFO "problem" with the press. Notably
absent were Ray Palmer and Donal Keyhoe. One of the results of
the meetings was the founding of the National Investigation
Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) by a physicist named
Townsend Brown. Although the symposium received extensive press
coverage at the time, it was subsequently censored out of UFO
history by the UFO cultists themselves -- primarily because they
had not participated in it. (8)

The American public was aware of only two flying saucer
personalities, contactee George Adamski, a lovable rogue with a
talent for obtaining publicity, and Donald Keyhoe, a zealot who
howled "Coverup!" and was locked in mortal combat with Adamski
for newspaper coverage. Since Adamski was the more colorful (he
had ridden a saucer to the moon), he was usually awarded more
attention. The press gave him the title of "astronomer" (he
lived in a house on Mount Palomar where a great telescope was in
operation), while Keyhoe attacked him as "the operator of a
hamburger stand." Ray Palmer tried to remain aloof of the
warring factions, so naturally, some of them turned against him.

The year 1957 was marked by several significant developments.
There was another major flying saucer wave. Townsend Brown's
NICAP floundered and Keyhoe took it over. And Ray Palmer
launched a new newsstand publication called _Flying Saucers From
Other Worlds_. In the early issues he hinted that he knew some
important "secret." After tantalizing his readers for months,
he finally revealed that UFOs came from the center of the earth
and the phrase _From Other Worlds_ was dropped from the title.
His readers were variously enthralled, appalled, and galled by
the revelation.

For seven years, from 1957 to 1964, ufology in the United States
was in total limbo. This was the Dark Age. Keyhoe and NICAP
were buried in Washington, vainly tilting at windmills and
trying to initiate a congressional investigation into the UFO
situation. [It is therefore with Great Thanksgiving in Our Hearts
that we applaud the Fine Efforts of CSETI's Steve Greer to carry
on this proud -- albeit amusingly Quixotic -- tradition, some
four decades later. -B:.B:.]

A few hundred UFO believers clustered around Coral Lorenzen's
Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO). And about 2,000
teenagers bought _Flying Saucers_ from newsstands each month.
Palmer devoted much space to UFO clubs, information exchanges,
and letters-to-the-editor. So it was Palmer, and Palmer alone,
who kept the subject alive during the Dark Age and lured new
youngsters into ufology. He published his strange books about
Deros, and ran a mail-order business selling the UFO books that
had been published after various waves of the 1950s. His
partners in the _Fate_ venture bought him out, so he was able
to devote his full time to his UFO enterprises.

Palmer had set up a system similar to sci-fi fandom, but with
himself as the nucleus. He had come a long way since his early
days and the Jules Verne Prize Club. He had been instrumental
in inventing a whole system of belief, a frame of reference --
the magical world of Shaverism and flying saucers -- and he had
set himself up as the king of that world. Once the belief
system had been set up it became self-perpetuating. The people
beleaguered by mysterious rays were joined by the wishful
thinkers who hoped that living, compassionate beings existed out
there beyond the stars. They didn't need any real evidence.
The belief itself was enough to sustain them.

When a massive new UFO wave -- the biggest one in U.S. history
-- struck in 1964 and continued unabated until 1968, APRO and
NICAP were caught unawares and unprepared to deal with renewed
public interest. Palmer increased the press run of _Flying
Saucers_ and reached out to a new audience. Then in the 1970s,
a new Dark Age began. October 1973 produced a flurry of well-
publicized reports and then the doldrums set in. NICAP
strangled in its own confusion and dissolved in a puddle of
apathy, along with scores of lesser UFO organizations. Donald
Keyhoe, a very elder statesman, lives in seclusion in Virginia.
Most of the hopeful contactees and UFO investigators of the 1940s
and 50s have passed away. Palmer's _Flying Saucers_ quietly
self-destructed in 1975, but he continued with _Search_ until
his death in 1977. Richard Shaver is gone but the Shaver
Mystery still has a few adherents. Yet the sad truth is that
none of this might have come about if Howard Browne hadn't
scoffed at that letter in that dingy editorial office in that
faraway city so long ago.



Footnotes:

1) Donnelly's book, Atlantis, published in 1882, set off a 50-
year wave of Atlantean hysteria around the world. Even the
characters who materialized at seances during that period
claimed to be Atlanteans.

2) The author was an active sci-fi fan in the 1940s and published
a fanzine called 'Lunarite'. Here's a quote from _Lunarite_
dated October 26, 1946: "_Amazing Stories_ is still trying to
convince everyone that the BEMs in the caves run the world.
And I was blaming it on the Democrats. 'Great Gods and Little
Termites' was the best tale in this ish [issue]. But Shaver,
author of the 'Land of Kui,' ought to give up writing. He's
lousy. And the editors of AS ought to join Sgt. Saturn on the
wagon and quit drinking that Xeno or the BEMs in the caves will
get them."

I clearly remember the controversy created by the Shaver
Mystery and the great disdain with which the hardcore fans
viewed it.

3) From _Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of the Pulp Magazines_
by Ron Goulart (published by Arlington House, New York, 1972).

4) It is interesting that so many victims of this type of
phenomenon were welding or operating electrical equipment such
as radios, radar, etc. when they began to hear voices.

5) The widespread "ghost rockets" of 1946 received little notice
in the U.S. press. I remember carrying a tiny clipping around
in my wallet describing mysterious rockets weaving through the
mountains of Switzerland. But that was the only "ghost rocket"
report that reached me that year.

6) I attended this meeting but my memory of it is vague after so
many years. I cannot recall who sponsored it.

7) A few of the surviving science fiction magazines now pay (gasp!)
three cents a word. But writing sci-fi still remains a sure way
to starve to death.

When David Michael Jacobs wrote _The UFO Controversy in America_,
a book generally regarded as the most complete history of the
UFO maze, he chose to completely revise the history of the 1940s
and 50s, carefully excising any mention of Palmer, the 1956
symposium, and many of the other important developments during
that period.

Before the first flying saucer was sighted in 1947

Wow, the first reported UFO sighting wasn't until 1947?

I have an interesting story to relate about sperlunking:

Some years ago my company sent a group of us managers on a weekend outward bound/adventure course in southern Wales. It was a pretty famous course, run by ex-Para's and all in all it was a pretty amazing experience for all of us. We spent 3 days alternately scared, elated, challenged, intimidated etc. It felt a lot like Basic Training for the Airborne!

Anyway, one part of it really frightened all of us and this was the afternoon we spent sperlunking (or potholing as they call it in the UK). And when I say frightened, I mean really frightened. Not terrified or anything as hysterical as that but just quietly, unusually frightened.

Basically, we were hiking in to a ravine to a cave entrance and suddenly 4 young guys in full on sperlunking gear, hats, waterproofs, sealed wellington boots appeared coming towards us, literally falling over themselves on the rough terrain. They were all red faced, sweating and obviously in a big hurry which, as they got closer and then passed us, was obviously actually a panic. These were big 'outdoorsy' looking guys and they were clearly in a bad way. Not injured or hurt but scared. We had to literally scramble out of their way as they came through. One of our guides immediately collared one of them and asked what was going on and the kid fought him off without speaking. Stranger was the fact that the kid was big but no physical match for the guide yet he either bested him physically or simply vibed out the guide so much that he allowed him to brush him away.

After a few minutes we carried on in to the ravine but it was clear that our guides - who'd been made of steel all weekend and apparently all their waking lives! - were spooked. They huddled and chatted and eventually the decision was made to carry on with the exercise.

So we sperlunked a few caves, forded an underground river etc and had a generally eye opening time. But the guides were jumpy. We all agreed on this. We didn't do the originally planned exercises, we didn't spend half as long underground as was planned and there was a general air of anxiety around us. My colleagues and I all spoke about this afterwards and could easily do so today. It was peculiar, unsettled afternoon.

Later, we were back at the hostel with the guides and myself and another guy asked them about the four boys we'd seen. The guides became very serious and explained that 'all kinds of weird shit' goes on underground and the boys had probably 'fucked about with something they shouldn't have'. When pushed on this they became reticent and asked that we forget about it.

The following morning at reveille the head of the course took a few moments to speak to us all about what we'd seen. Obviously, we'd all at some point asked questions about it and he ws anxious to dispel any wrong ideas. Yet he didn't really offer any explanation other than strange things happen and the kids we had seen were probably inexperienced or on drugs.

We all knew this was BS and the guides knew that we knew.

Anyway, this was the last day of the course and we had a group exercise planned and then a BBQ.

The exercise involved entering surface caves and fixing ropes around a small lake within on of the caves.

While doing this I struck up a conversation with one of the guides whom I got on very well with. We shared the same first name and as you'll all probably know, this can create an instant bond with strangers particularly in stressful situations.

So I asked him WTF had happened the day before?

He stepped us away from the group and crouched down where he basically told me that he'd been sperlunking for ten years and in that time had seen and heard a lot of strange shit under ground. He said too that a lot of people had been doing seances underground and that all kinds of peculiar shit had happened at these. He'd never been to one, he said, but his buddies had and it was generally accepted that if you did stuff in the caves then you'd have bloody weird stuff happen. He said too that he knew of people doing a thing with candles and saying the Lord's Prayer backwards and that this was probably what the four boys had done judging by the way they were all 'shitting their pants.'

I should point out that all of our guides were charismatic, BS-full, hilarious ex-army dudes who were brimming with confidence and they did enjoy winding us up all that weekend. This guy who told me this could very easily be full of shit. BUT, I'd also have to say that everything about the way he and his colleagues reacted to us encountering the four frightened boys was odd. They seemed genuinely put out by it. Genuinely knocked off guard.

Also, we were staying in a little town in a very "Slaughtered Lamb" style pub/hostel and as we looked back on it weeks and months later, my colleagues and I felt more and more like we'd been living in a strange. almost alternate world for that weekend. The people we met in the pub were bloody strange. Our guides, for all their bravado, were definitely very subdued and jumpy after our encounter with the fleeing boys.

And that word 'fleeing' was the word we came up with collectively later. They were fleeing from something in a cave.

So that would be it except for the fact that a few years later I met another guy who was a recreational sperlunker and who told me several tales of underground seances and the 'fucking terrifying things' they'd summoned up. Unlike the guides previously, he was completely matter of fact about it and very evenly told me that "you can do all kinds of weird shit underground."

That's pretty much it.

I've never caved/pot-holed or sperlunked again and never will.

Wow, I can't believe that Crissman and Hubbard were mentioned in Pirx's post as writers for Shaver's pulp publisher Ray Palmer, and there is no followup comment here. Hmmm...

And, HMK Grey, there is NO WAY that you could ever get me down into those underground caves even once. That National Geographic article and pics set the hair up on my back.

So many Richard Parkers!

Whatever could it mean?!

Thanks,

Telexx

Nearly every community has at least one
person who complains constantly to the local police that someone
- usually a neighbor -- is aiming a terrible ray gun at their
house or apartment. This ray, they claim, is ruining their
health, causing their plants to die, turning their bread moldy,
making their hair and teeth fall out, and broadcasting voices
into their heads. [To the Reichian concept of DOR (Dead Orgone),
stir in the bizarre sci-fi tales of "Alex Constantine," and
Kathy Kasten, et al, for a latter-day equivalent of the Shaverian
Dero Ray-Gun Attack mythos -B:.B:.) Psychiatrists are very
familiar with these "ray" victims and relate the problem with
paranoid-schizophrenia. For the most part, these paranoiacs are
harmless and usually elderly. Occasionally, however, the voices
they hear urge them to perform destructive acts, particularly
arson. They are a distrustful lot, loners by nature, and very
suspicious of everyone, including the government and all figures
of authority. In earlier times, they thought they were hearing
the voice of God and/or the Devil. Today they often blame the
CIA or space beings for their woes.

I don't have anything to say about the refernces to Hubbard and Crisman, as per Chiggerbit's comment, but I was unsettled by the above quote the first time I read this piece a few months ago. I don't know much at all about John Keel, other than that he's respected in his field. Isn't he usually included with the likes of Jaques Vallee and Richard Dolan? (I have to admit to much ignorance about the UFO phenom, outside of a couple Vallee books that I've read. ) In any event, is Keel generally so dismissive of 'Wavies'? Am I understanding this correctly? Is he also incredulous concerning MILABS etc?

The other thing that lost me was the reference to "Alex Constantine", quotation marks and all. I believe the comment about Constantine and Kathy Kasten was added by an editor (webmaster?) at the Greylodge Occult Review. What's the deal? As I understand it, Constantine claims to have been the victim of microwave harassment. Why would the GOR show such apparent disdain, and why the quotation marks? Apolgies if I'm getting terms or ideas all arse-about-tit.

HMK - great story.