The Kenneth Arnold Files: Part I - Venusian Encounters
By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray”
Note: Dr. Keller will be presenting a lecture, “Flying Saucers: From Venus They Come!” at the Hamilton Township Public Library at 1 Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. Way in Hamilton, New Jersey, on Wednesday, 29 November 2017, at 7:00 p.m. The program consists of a 45-minute power point presentation followed by a question and answer session. The meeting is free and open to the public. Dr. Keller will also autograph his award-winning 'Venus Rising' books.
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On 28 March 1950, at the dawn of the atomic and space ages, retired lumberjack Samuel Eaton Thompson of Centralia, Washington, then age 70, came to the rapid realization that we are not alone in the universe and that we can learn much more about extraterrestrials and their way of life simply by remaining calm and exercising our powers of observation. The following is an account of one of the first encounters of an Earthling with beings from the planet Venus in the modern era.
Pre-20th Century Venusian Encounters
The great Persian Sufi mystic, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273), once declared to his more intimate group of disciples that there were always about 4,000 angels on the Earth at any time. The ministry of angels, according to this learned Islamic theologian, was to help prepare humankind for its ascension into the higher celestial realms, where we, too, might become angels and dwell in the light of eternal splendor. This is our destiny.
In the ensuing centuries since Rumi’s preaching, many have pointed to the esteemed presence of angelic beings among us. The most noted Italian poet, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), hailing from the cosmopolitan city of Florence, in his famous work, the Divine Comedy (1320), wrote that the planet Venus was the third sphere of Paradise and that he was accompanied there by his beloved Beatrice Portinari, a young woman that he had been infatuated with since his youth, but who, up to the time he traveled with her to Venus, had only admired from a distance. The two were met at the gates of Paradise by a contingent of angels and other ascended beings that were only too kind to conduct them on a guided tour of the wonders that the enchanted planet Venus had to offer.
Other spiritual insights and revelations pertaining to the realms of angels were advanced by the Swedish mystic, philosopher, scientist and theologian, Emanuel Swedenborg. Obsessed with the concept of an afterlife, he wrote extensively on the subjects of both Heaven and Hell. Swedenborg believed that Heaven and Hell were real, tangible places, but that they were located on other planets in the solar system. Swedenborg claimed that he had actually spoken with beings inhabiting the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Saturn and Venus that had come to visit him here on Earth during various special occasions. He published a book about these close encounters in 1758, Life on Other Planets, two centuries before the modern age of the flying saucer contactees. The Swedish scientist believed that the most advanced beings came from Venus. Many of these come to the Earth in the capacity of teachers to illumine our path to a better way of living with each other and preparing our society for its ultimate ascension to a higher kingdom in the celestial realms of light. Swedenborg claimed that after he had become more familiar with some of these exalted beings, they actually flew him across the gulf of outer space to visit the planet Venus, an abode of angels.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, noted Theosophist, Helena P. Blavatsky (1831-1891), picked up with the heavenly Venus theme where Swedenborg left off. In one of her first metaphysical writings, an essay entitled History of a Planet (1887), Blavatsky wrote of the cloud-shrouded sphere that, “Venus is the most occult, powerful and mysterious of all the planets, the one whose influence upon and relation to the Earth is most prominent.” From Blavatsky and later leaders in the Theosophical Society, we have come to learn that our sector of the Milky Way galaxy is governed by a council of ascended masters on Venus known as the Lords of the Flame. This august, angelic assembly also includes women. Of course, how could it not? --- at least so far as Venus is the celestial orb that best epitomizes the concept of the divine feminine in so many aspects. Blavatsky gained her specific information about Venus following encounters with ascended masters in the Himalayas.
Flying Saucers: From Venus They Came
The legendary age of flying saucers began on 24 June 1947, when private pilot and fire extinguisher salesman and technician Kenneth Arnold (1915-1984) caught sight of nine disc-shaped objects passing over the tops of the Cascade Mountains in Washington State while flying his Call Air A-2 airplane in the vicinity of Mt. Rainier. Arnold described the movement of these objects as something akin to “saucers skipping across water.” On the following day, newspapers from around the globe carried banner headlines about the arrival of “flying saucers” in our skies, and the name has stuck ever since.
Naturally, with his background in aviation and the notoriety that followed his sighting, Arnold was considered the preeminent authority on the subject of flying saucers in our skies well into the early 1960s, when the public turned to prestigious civilian UFO investigative groups like retired Marine Corps Major Donald E. Keyhoe’s National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena in Washington, D.C., or Coral and Jim Lorenzen’s Aerial Phenomena Research Organization in Tucson, Arizona. Both of these organizations were staffed by highly-acclaimed scientists that served as investigators and consultants in their various specialty areas. The public turned to these groups and others because the United States Air Force was perceived as concealing the truth about flying saucers hailing from other planets.
Arnold took it upon himself to discover the truth that was out there. In the late 1940s through the early 1960s, occasionally accompanied by his wife Doris, he flew throughout the Northwest and investigated hundreds of flying saucer reports. He did this on his own dime and at great personal expense. Arnold also went to great lengths in making sure that he tape recorded all of his investigative interviews with the paranormal experiencers. But the strangest report of all that both Arnold and Doris had the opportunity of investigating came from the Centralia, Washington, retired lumberjack Samuel Eaton Thompson, whose relating of an encounter with some Venusians convinced Arnold that not only did the flying saucers come from our sister planet Venus, but that the Venusians were literally angels operating clandestinely here on Earth.
According to Venus expert Dr. Raymond Keller, many Venusians and other extraterrestrials are attracted to our beautiful beaches. The Venusians, who lack our inhibitions or religious injunctions about nudism, feel no qualms about being in the buff and enjoying nature to its fullest.
Clothing Optional
Thompson’s story begins following a visit with family and friends in Markham, located in the western part of the state of Washington. Driving through a forested area along a Pacific coast road, the retired lumberjack noticed a big, luminous, globe-shaped object that appeared to be descending onto the beach, beyond the tree line. Seeing a logging trail that apparently led to the shore, the curious Thompson turned his 1947 black Ford pickup truck onto the dirt road in order to determine just how close he could get to the ocean front. The road narrowed into a small forest clearing, where Thompson conveniently backed up and parked his truck. Hearing a humming noise, like a “swarm of bumblebees,” the experienced woodsman pushed his way through the brush and trees toward the beach. In just a few minutes, Thompson had made his way to a rocky shore, whence he ran into “something unheard of.” At least that is how he described the initial phase of his encounter to the investigating Arnolds.
Unlike our conventional aircraft that have to come to a landing, this object simply floated a few feet above the ground. But even more surprising was the throng of naked people playing on and beside the steps that led from a door in the bottom of the craft. Of the occupants emerging from the sphere, Thompson took note that they “had the appearance and size of an average teenager, but possessing very fine features.” The retired lumberjack also declared that, in his estimation, “They were just beautiful. They had dark tans and lovely, blonde hair that came all the way down to their waists.” This uniform appearance of height, skin tone and texture, as well as blonde hair coloring, applied equally to both sexes.
At first, with Thompson merely observing from behind the tree line, he was apparently unseen, or if observed, paid little heed to by the occupants. Thompson, for his part, decided to cautiously approach the ship. At about a distance of fifty feet from the craft, however, he felt an intense flow of heat rushing by him. He told the Arnolds that, “The heat felt like rays from the Sun,” and assumed that the radiating effect of its emission contributed to the well-tanned skins of these beings.
As he passed about ten feet beyond the heat barrier and continued to approach the ship, the beings huddled closely together on and about the step ladder, as if they were afraid of him. Thompson, for his part, sensed the fear of the occupants and stated that, “I come in peace and mean you no harm.” Apparently, this was considered a satisfactory response by the beings, for they told him that if he removed his shoes and socks, they would let him board the craft, provided that he didn’t touch any of the navigation equipment. The beings, in turn, said that they were visitors from the planet we know as Venus, and apologized for their broken English. Except for the ship’s captain, they had only heard English and other Earth languages through our radio transmissions.
Once onboard the ship, Thompson would remain the guest of the Venusians for a period of 40 hours. During this time, he discovered that these beings “seemed the happiest and cheerful people I have ever met;” adding that, “Even the smaller ones, their children, were so gentle in their play. They exhibited no roughness or tumbling, stuff like that. They loved to frolic and splash in the water. They were not being told how to behave or think, as is the custom on our world.”
For their part, the Venusians were kind and totally benevolent. They explained to Thompson that they would never harm, let alone kill, any human being. The Venusians are here to foster goodwill among all humankind. But Earth people truly frighten them; for on several occasions, Earthly aircraft have shot down some of their patrol ships. Thompson asked the Venusian captain why she thought that was the case, to which Lady Selene replied that, “The Earth, at its highest vibration level, comes nowhere close to fostering the type of cosmic consciousness that exists on Venus. We, the Venusians, recognize this and understand that humankind is still in the process of spiritually evolving.” Interestingly, there have been a few recalcitrant Venusians along the way; but Lady Selene assured Thompson that “These had been banished to Mars for rehabilitation.”
Of the many aspects of life on Venus, Thompson discovered that the Venusians incorporate a form of astrology into their religion not unlike that practiced in Tibetan Buddhism. The Venusians, for the most part, are also vegetarians and prefer to eat fruits and vegetables in their raw state. Much like the Seventh-Day Adventists here on Earth, the outstanding dietary habits of the Venusians allow them to live long and healthy lives. Most Venusians live for hundreds of years, as time is measured on our planet, and in a few but special cases, even exceeding thousands of years.
A Tour of the Spaceship
As Thompson asked many of the Venusians technical questions, especially about the ship’s propulsion, he was saddened that very few could answer with specific details. When he inquired of this with Lady Selene, the captain explained that her spaceship was an excursion vessel and that the majority of those onboard were tourists. Lady Selene volunteered to take the retired lumberjack on a tour of the ship and to answer his questions to the best of her ability, but also taking in security concerns.
The ship’s temperature was set at an equivalent of 80 degrees Fahrenheit. For most Venusians, this is a comfortable setting. And, of course, clothing is optional. The captain asked Thompson if he would prefer to remove his clothing. But being raised in a strict, fundamentalist Christian environment, Thompson politely declined. This prompted the Washington woodsman to ask about such concepts as temptation and sin, to which the captain replied that, “The idea of committing a ‘sin’ is something that is truly foreign to most Venusians. On Venus, we do not have organized religions like you do on Earth, whose leaders constantly tell you what you must think and do. This is abhorrent to us as critically thinking, and rational, scientific beings. Our way of life is one of charity and kindness to all. Obviously, there are no laws against loving your neighbors as you would yourself, or your own family; and thereby there is no need for regulatory institutions like organized religions. In this regard, Venus is truly an angelic realm.”
“I don’t understand, Lady Selene. Do you mean to say that there are no churches on Venus?”
“Brother Thompson,” said the captain, “a church is not what you think it is- vis-à-vis a building of wood or stone. No, a church is merely an assemblage of people. Of course, we Venusians do meet quite often to study and reflect on spiritual concerns. But everyone is a leader in promoting and generating acts of kindness.”
“What about Jesus Christ? What do you Venusians think about him?”
“For us, the Venusians, it is not so much about who Jesus is as to what he taught while he lived among you. Jesus approached each individual at their point of need. He blessed them, cured them, taught them, etc. and moved on. He taught his disciples to do the same things and more, changing one life at a time in the process. If you on Earth were to continue in this manner, by the year 10,000 C.E., Jesus will have returned to Earth as an avatar once again, realizing full well that he wouldn’t meet the sorry fate he ran into with his last incarnation among the Jews and the Roman occupiers.”
The spherical craft was encompassed about by a large, metallic ring. Above the ring were the control and work rooms and below were the living quarters, baths, and recreation centers.
Lady Selene led Thompson into the main control room. “Each ship of this class has four sets of controls,” remarked the captain, further adding that, “They consist of little more than levers to make the craft ascend, descend, accelerate or decelerate. Really, these controls are so simple that practically anybody could operate them.”
Rage Against the Machines
The captain also provided some wise advice. “Long ago, we made our machines so smart and sophisticated that many Venusians were unable to operate or even understand them anymore. On Venus, we actually went to war with the machines that tried to take over our planet. After a hard-won victory over these ‘smart machines,’ we returned to a simpler technology that left us in control.”
Next, the captain showed Thompson some of living quarters, square rooms onboard the ship, like in an ocean liner, but illuminated without visible light bulbs or fixtures. The walls just seemed to glow with a type of radiant sunlight.
Other rooms shown Thompson included some for bathing and taking showers. Thompson described it thusly: “You just walk into this room and it rains in there, just the same as it rains outdoors. They draw in the moisture from the air; and that is where you’ll get your bath.”
The adroit woodsman was also escorted into a bedroom. There were beds that folded out from the wall. “Now don’t get any ideas,” said Captain Selene. “I just thought you might like to check out a bedroom, since you’ll be spending the night here.” Thompson and the captain chuckled.
Kenneth Arnold, at this point in the interview, asked Thompson about the restroom facilities. Thompson, being the Puritan that he was, said that he never asked about restrooms or used one during the whole time he was on the ship. “So what did you do when you had to go?” asked Arnold.
“When I had to relieve myself, I just went outside, even after dark. Frankly, I have no idea how the Venusians deal with this function because the subject never came up during a conversation. But if it had,” Thompson felt that, “the Venusians, who never get embarrassed about anything, would have discussed the subject forthrightly.”
Thompson expressed a desire of wanting to go home and fetch a camera, whence he could return and take photographs of the ship and the Venusians, as well as bring some other witnesses back with him. To this the captain emphatically replied, “I’ll let you bring a camera back; but it won’t do you any good. Also, experience teaches us that not all humans are as nice as you. So bringing anyone else here is out of the question. They might try to destroy us, or even vector some strange disease. We took a chance on you, since our medical monitors showed you were clean after passing through our heat barrier. But I’m responsible for the safety of all these students, so I can’t allow them further exposure to other Earth beings.”
Thompson did come back in time, right before the ship took off, with his camera. Unfortunately, and true to Lady Selene’s words, the pictures he took were no good, just showing huge blobs of light in place of both the Venusians and their ship.
“I’m really impressed, Lady Selene. Do you suppose we of Earth will be able to produce anything like all of this anytime soon?”
“God forbid, Samuel. I don’t think the Venusians are ready for Earthlings to move in next door just yet.”
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Note: In the next installment, Part II, the “Cosmic Ray” looks at Kenneth and Doris Arnold’s investigation of another Venusian tourist excursion, scout craft landings and Venusian horseback riders in California’s Sierras, to include their startling conclusions about the nature of the Venusian presence. In addition, Dr. Keller reveals a case of Venusian fishermen up in Canada; more Venusian skinny-dippers in the Midwest of the United States and also in Wales; and George Adamski’s thoughts on Venusian tourism here on Earth.
Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet
Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus
Cosmic Ray's Excellent Venus Adventure
The Coming of the Saucers
