George Adamski was the first of the New Age UFO prophets, and just as the prophets of old went out into the desert to receive their revelations directly from God or the angels, Adamski went out into the night near Desert Center, Calif., on Nov. 20, 1952, and received his first revelatory encounter with Orthon, a Venusian space brother.
          Through telepathic transfer, Adamski learned that the space traveler was benign and greatly concerned with the spiritual growth of humankind. Adamski's desert encounter with a Venusian and Robert Wise's motion picture The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), with its warning that Earth had better clean up its act delivered by an alien messenger, were probably the two most contributive factors in birthing the UFO contactee movement in the United States.
          After Adamski published Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953), co-authored with Desmond Leslie, he became popular as a lecturer and had little difficulty establishing himself as the best known of all the contactees, who were now springing up around the world.
          Flying saucer mania was rampant in the early 1950s with a cautious public wanting to know who was piloting the mysterious craft in the sky, where they were from, and what they looked like.
          Adamski had the answers. Orthon, the Venusian, was smooth-skinned, beardless, with shoulder-length blond hair, stood about 5 feet 6 inches tall, and wore what appeared to be some kind of jumpsuit-like apparel. Orthon had come in peace, eager to warn Earthlings about radiation from the nuclear tests that were being conducted. There were universal laws and principles established by the Creator of All, and the people of Earth would do well to begin to practice those laws at once.
          All these messages were transmitted telepathically to Adamski to relay to his fellow Earthlings, but later, after he had been taken for a trip into outer space, Adamski was able to communicate verbally with such entities as Firkon, the Martian, and Ramu, from Saturn.
          The death of George Adamski on April 12, 1965, by no means terminated the heated controversy that had never stopped swirling around the prolific and articulate contactee. Throughout his career as a contactee, Adamski's believers steadfastly declared him to be one of the most saintly of men, completely devoted to the teachings of universal laws.
          It appears that after his death, certain of his followers found it necessary to provide their disciple of intergalactic peace with a kind of instant resurrection. In the book The Scoriton Mystery (1967) by Eileen Buckle, a contactee named Ernest Bryant claims to have met three spacemen on April 24, 1965, one of whom was a youth named Yamski, whose body already housed the reincarnated spirit of George Adamski.
          According to Desmond Leslie, George Adamski had an audience with Pope John XXIII (1881-1963) just a few days before the pope passed away. Leslie said that he met Adamski at the airport in London just after he had flown in from Rome. He drove Adamski straight to his little river cruiser at Staines, where several people interested in UFOs had been spending the weekend.
          Sometime during the next few days, Adamski showed Leslie a memento that he said no one would ever take from him, and he produced an exquisite gold medal with Pope John's effigy on it. Later Leslie checked and found it was a medal that had not yet been released to anyone.
          When Adamski was asked how he had received it, he answered that Pope John had given it to him the day before. Adamski went on to say how he had arrived at the Vatican according to the space people's instructions and had been taken straight in, given a cassock, and led to the pope's bedside. It was here that Adamski had handed Pope John a sealed package from the space brothers. It was said that Pope John's face had beamed when he received the package, and he said, "This is what I have been waiting for!" The pope then presented Adamski with a special medal, and the papal audience ended.
          Leslie said that he later checked with Lou Zinsstag, who had allegedly taken Adamski to the Vatican. Zinsstag reported that when they had approached the Vatican and neared the private entrance, a man with "purple at his throat" (apparently a monsignor or a bishop) appeared.
          Adamski had cried out, "That's my man!", greeted the papal official, and was led in for an audience with the pope. Zinsstag said that when he reappeared about 20 minutes later, Adamski appeared to be in the same state of excitement and rapture as witnesses had described him being in after his desert contact with the space brothers in 1952.
          When Leslie later asked an abbot what he knew about the medal, the clergyman was amazed and said that such a medal would only have been given to someone in the most exceptional circumstances, and that no one, so far as he knew, had yet received this particular medal.
          Leslie admitted that he had initially disbelieved that Adamski had received such an audience with the pope, but this confirmation from the abbot with regard to the medal had overcome his former disbelief. When Leslie asked Adamski what the space brothers' package had contained, the contactee said that he did not know. He related that the package had been given to him by the space brothers before he left for Europe and that he had been given instructions to present it to the pope. He was also told that all arrangements had been made inside the Vatican for such an audience to take place. This suggested to Leslie that the space brothers have a "fifth column" in St. Peter's seat as well as everywhere else.
          Later, Adamski told Leslie that he thought the package had contained instructions and advice for the Second Ecumenical Council. It is possible that the package also contained a message to St. Peter's successors that chided them about certain lax measures and encouraged them to get on with the serious work required on Earth.

THE ADAMSKI TRAIL

By Joan Bird via Ted Loman

          We flew down for a short trip, to visit my husband's godfather in Palm Desert. I had just finished reading Flying Saucers Have Landed, by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski (1953), and decided it would be fun to go visit Mt. Palomar and see if I could find Palomar Gardens, where so many of Adamski's amazing photos were taken, and then try to find the place Adamski described his first contact experience, near Desert Center, California. I have grown quite fond of George Adamski as I've read his books, and accounts by others of his dedication, good-natured enthusiasm, and passion for the truth.
          The Palomar Gardens Cafe site, and the Palomar Terraces above are now the Oak Knoll Campground. You can view photos of Adamski, the cafe, and some of his best UFO photos at the George Adamski Foundation Web site: http://www.adamskifoundation.com
          On the way to Mt. Palomar, we stopped in the Pauma Valley at a little taco place where I had to order the "Flying Saucer," a tostado with a deep fat fried tortilla. I was still full six hours later at dinner time.
          At the 50-year anniversary of his first contact, Nov. 20, 2002, the Foundation made posters, and had plans to do some development and programs highlighting Adamski's history at the campground. However, all we found were some (very interesting) newspaper clippings and posters about Adamski in the little camp store. The proprietor pointed to the spot where the cafe had burned down, and some of the trails lined with stones that Adamski and his cohorts built back in the '50s. It's a pretty spot. We heard there was a Frenchman who had been staying there a few days on the Adamski Trail, and that there had been some cinematographers there for a Discovery channel special. We were on a short time schedule, so we didn't track down the Frenchman, but hiked around the campground, and took in the late afternoon sun through the oak trees, and the amazing beauty and views of this place.
          From Mt. Palomar, we followed the mountain road over to Palm Desert, probably the road Adamski drove beginning at 1 a.m. to meet the Baileys and George Hunt Williamson and his wife around 8 a.m. in Blythe, Calif., on that memorable day. On the actual anniversary date, Nov. 20, we continued on the Adamski Trail to Desert Center, about 60 miles east from Palm Desert on Hwy 10. On the way we passed the General Patton Museum, where Patton built a training ground for desert fighting in Africa, used by a million troups in 1942-1944. Adamski mentions driving by an abandoned military training ground and airport in his account.
          We stopped at the Desert Center cafe, where Adamski and his friends had dinner after the encounter. The cafe looks like it hasn't changed since 1952, and seems to be the only building besides the Post Office still in use.
          I asked the waitress if she knew anything about Adamski.
          "Who?" she said.
          "He wrote about seeing a spaceship and seeing an alien not far from here."
          "Oh!" Her eyes got big. "Yeah. I live up there and I've seen 'em too."
          She proceeded to describe an experience she had last summer, seeing a large oblong ship with lights on one end, that made a zig-zag pattern repeatedly in the sky. She called a girlfriend who lived nearby, and who described the same pattern. (She drew this pattern for me, and said the ship repeated it several times.) She said the ship turned so the lights were pointed right at her, and that freaked her out. She rubbed her arms and said she gets goosebumps when she talks about it, but she'd really like to see them again.
          She also said her brother had seen a very bright light approach him and a friend who were camping in the area. The next thing they knew it was two hours later, and they packed up in a hurry and got out of there. When I showed her the picture of the "cigar-shaped" mother ship photographed by Adamski, she said that was what it looked like. Adamski and his friends saw this large ship first. It was chased off by military jets, but later they saw a smaller craft, the bell-shaped scout craft that is so widely reported, and that carried the visitor that Adamski met.
          We bought a couple of cans of juice and soda, thanked her, and continued on our way. We drove up the highway toward Parker, Arizona, the east end of Joshua Tree National Park to our left. Adamski describes a ridge, part of the Coxcomb Mountains, on the map. At 11 miles, where they first stopped, there is actually a little asphalt pull-out, and you can see the end of the ridge where they walked to see what was on the other side. We turned and went back to where 10.2 miles from Desert Center would be and pulled over. This was where Adamsi pulled off the road to drive closer to the ridge. There was actually a small parking lot back at the 10-mile marker, with a car in it. Who knows why these conveniently located improvements are placed where they are?
          I set off one direction and Max another. I tried to look for the landmarks Adamski mentioned, to find the place where he saw the small ship, and then later the man who came from it. Along the way I ran into the people from the parked car. They greeted me and asked if I was out for a little hike. I said I was on the Adamski Trail, and they both broke into grins. She said, "See, I told you so." I figured it being Nov. 20, they had to be there for the same reason I was.
          Adamski's contact happened just after noon, which was about the time we met. We compared notes. He was a longtime Adamski fan, and actually had known a woman who had a "UFO Education Center" somewhere in Wisconsin, I think it was, who had been an Adamski follower for many years.
          He had an enlarged photo of the ship disappearing over the ridge at the contact site, as well as many photos of Adamski. We hiked around, looking for the little "cove" where the ship was hidden. We don't know if we were at the spot or not, but we were definitely close. I left my fellow explorers to meet Max back at the car. Max found a number of markers, indicating somebody had been there, and possibly the spot. It's a rocky area, but near the ship, the visitor made a point of his footprints in the dirt or sand, and these were plaster-cast by G.H. Williamson, when Adamski took all his friends to see the spot where he had the encounter and saw the ship.
          And, of course, I kept searching the skies, in case some of Adamski's visitors might also be in the neighborhood commemorating that first meeting. Max and I each saw an abandoned and "decomposing" computer, two different ones, on the slopes of the ridge. Not something I've seen before while hiking.
          Back at Desert Center, we stopped in for lunch, and were disappointed the earlier waitress had gone home. The new waitress hadn't seen any UFOs, but had seen a strange fish with a big head that followed people at night in a little lake at a nearby campground... hmm. We noticed two guys in the booth next to us, one Japanese speaking almost unintelligible English. The other looking like he could be a regular there. Both about 60. I thought about saying something to them while we were eating, but didn't.
          As we were getting ready to go, I bumped into the Japanese fellow near the relief topo map on the wall. Couldn't help but hold up my Adamski book, and say, "Are you here to see the Adamski site?" His eyebrows raised and he said, with his very heavy accent, "Contact point? Contact point?" I said yes, we were here because of the contact point, and he gestured we should go talk to his friend, which seemed like a better idea than trying to communicate. Turned out that the Japanese man, who is a Buddhist monk, and his friend, an ex-cop who now lives in Sun City, Ariz., have been coming here and camping out for the anniversary every year for many years. They met at an Adamski conference in Washington, DC, in the early '90s. I asked if they'd seen anything. They both nodded. "Many times. The first year we came, it was like a UFO airshow."
          The ex-cop ended up telling us his own amazing contact story from Niles, Mich., in the '70s, when 17 different law enforcement officers and a number of civilians saw a round spacecraft at close range. This story took almost an hour to tell, there was so much to it, much of it about the events that happened after the mass sighting to suppress it. One of the most amazing pieces was the effort someone made to save the radio log, which the Air Force or CIA changed, even though changing a police radio log is a felony. An important page was removed and hidden up the sleeve of an officer who had access to it, and our ex-cop was able to get a copy.
          The log documented two hours of missing time between when the officers first reported the spacecraft hovering 20 feet above one of the cars, and when they called in for permission to give chase when it took off. Our officer thought it had only been a few minutes, so he was as amazed as the dispatcher. I asked our storyteller if he had written it up. He said he did, and the manuscript was stolen under deceptive circumstances. And then returned 16 years later, with many additions and deletions. I hope that someday he will complete it, though he still has some misgivings about possible repercussions. What he said about what was done to suppress the story was horrible and enraging; incredible intimidation, violations of privacy, not to mention criminal acts and early deaths of all but five of the original witnesses.
          For anyone who believes our government is too incompetent to keep a secret of such magnitude (I hear this all the time), they need to hear this man's story. I told him I thought the suppression was diminishing. He said (he believed) the current plan was to allow more and more information to leak out so that disclosure would happen gradually over the next few years.           I'm going with that story, as I've heard it from other sources.
          There were also two women whom I didn't talk to, who may also have been there for the anniversary. After leaving the cafe, they took several pictures outside, and had that "other worldly" look about them.
          Maybe I'll get to go back next year, rejoin some of my fellow pilgrims, and camp out on the ridge. And I won't be shy about asking anyone why they're there.

          I'll leave you with a couple of quotes from Adamski's account of his meeting (from Flying Saucers Have Landed, 1953).
          "The beauty of his form surpassed anything I had ever seen. And the pleasantness of his face freed me of all thought of my personal self. I felt like a little child in the presence of one with great wisdom and much love, and I became very humble within myself ... for from him was radiating a feeling of infinite understanding and kindness, with supreme humility."
          "As I stood in this mountainous recess -- a solitary man watching the beautiful Scout Ship glide silently over the crest of the mountains and disappear into space -- I felt that a part of me was going with it. For, strange as it may sound, the presence of this inhabitant of Venus was like the warm embrace of real love and understanding wisdom, and with his departure I felt an absence of this warm embrace.
          "There was an emptiness such as can be compared only with the feelings experienced when a very dear one departs; yet a longing remains for his presence. And to this very day I feel the same emptiness and longing whenever I think of this visitor from another world."
          There are two pre-1947 Montana accounts of contact with extraterrestrials that look like us, and both of them express similar feelings of warmth, trust and good will in the presence of these visitors.
          While many contact (abduction) cases are admittedly frightening and disturbing, it's important to know about the many accounts of benevolent visitors.

Joan