From Keller Venus Files: In his father’s footsteps, Dr. Frank E. Stranges (1927-2008) in the mission field at Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1950.

Introduction

Dr. Frank Ernest Stranges was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 6 October 1927, the son of Reverend Natale Anthony Stranges and Mrs. Catherine (nee Filardo) Stranges. His father Natale was born in the mountainside village of Nicastro in the Catanzaro Province of Italy on 1 February 1895; and in 1912 his father, and Dr. Stranges’ paternal grandfather, Anthony Stranges, brought his immediate family to the shores of America. The Stranges family ultimately settled in the Borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Dr. Frank Stranges’ path in life led him to become the director of the International Evangelism Crusades, headquartered in Van Nuys, California. In this career dedicated to service to the Lord Jesus Christ, Dr. Frank E. Stranges was following in the footsteps of his father Natale, who was also an ordained Pentecostal minister of the gospel in the Independent Assemblies of God.

Tribulations Befall Natale A. Stranges

Natale returned to Europe during the course of America’s participation there in freeing that continent from German conquest in World War I, being drafted into the United States Army. Following the war, he received an honorable discharge and returned home to Brooklyn in 1919. One year later, he started suffering from severe backaches that persisted for a period of ten years.

In 1929, the pain was enhanced when he fell down in the nursery of their home after lifting up his then two-year old son Frankie from his crib. Years later, in explaining this incident to his son Frank, Rev. Natale said that, “I was in such pain and agony that all I could was just lie there on the floor. After a long while, I managed to crawl to the door of my store. A friend of the family happened to be passing by; and when she saw the condition I was in, she called my father-in-law and he immediately called the nearest doctor. When the doctor came in, he gave me a shot of morphine to deaden the pain.

“After a few days, I went with my wife in a taxi to the Brooklyn Hospital. I was kept under observation for a few days. The hospital authorities then asked for mine and my wife’s consent to operate on my right leg, as this is where the pain mostly was. By this time, my right leg was growing shorter than my left one. We did not consent to the operation, so they put me in a plaster cast from my waist down. I was in this position for three weeks.”

Jesus Opened a Door

While Natale was in the hospital, Jesus was working behind the scenes, opening a new door for the Italian immigrant to the United States to walk right on through to a wonderful future in the work of the ministry. A group of Pentecostals opened up a mission next door to Natale’s Brooklyn home. “Soon after,” Natale continued, “I had to leave the hospital for lack of funds. I went out, cast and all. The doctors also said that my being in the hospital was to no avail. I might just as well stay in my own bed at home, for all the good they were doing.

“The very same day I came home, the Pentecostal minister, who was a painter by trade, started to paint my kitchen. As he looked at me, he said, ‘Young man, what is the trouble with you?’

“I, being so depressed and discouraged, poured out my heart to him. I told him of all the doctors and specialists and hospitals I had been to, all for nothing; and I said that I wished I were dead.”

But the minister answered Natale with sound advice: “You have not tried the best specialist of all!”

Natale could not quite figure out this man, not thinking him to be pragmatic. However, he liked his optimism. In the previous months, he had been seen by every medical authority in New York City, and every one of them agreed that treating him would be a waste of Natale’s money and their time. “OK, then,” inquired Natale, “humor me and tell me who this specialist is that is going to help me.”

“His name,” replied the minister, “is Jesus. Hallelujah to His name!”

Natale then thanked the evangelist for at least trying to cheer him up, but informed him that he was a good Roman Catholic and would rather put his trust in St. Anthony, the patron saint of his village back in Italy. “When I was well, I sent money regularly over to Italy for St. Anthony,” the proud Italian-American declared.

Natale Finds Jesus Christ

Now Natale’s wife Catherine would sprinkle his body with holy water every day, praying for a miracle from St. Anthony for her ailing husband, but to no avail. But one night while she came down from their second-floor residence and was sitting in front of the family store, the minister’s wife was singing a solo hymn in the mission next door and she heard her pleasing voice. After the church service, the missionary wife came out of the mission hall and asked Catherine and Natale if they would go to their church the following Thursday night, insofar as they were going to have a Divine Healing service.

From Keller Venus Files: The Stranges Family of Brooklyn, New York

“Although my mother-in-law warned us not to go to that church because it was against our religion,” explained Natale, “yet there was something which constrained us to go. Therefore, we decided to go, knowing we couldn’t be anymore miserable than we were already. We didn’t understand at all what Divine Healing meant; but we decided to go. We went into the church and at the close of the sermon entitled ‘Darkness to Light,’ an invitation was given for the sick to come forward. It was difficult for me to kneel because of the cast which was on my leg; but once I reached the altar I fell down and cried out, ‘LORD, have mercy upon my soul! Save me from all sin! Then, if it is in your mercy to do so, please heal my sick body.’

“This brief prayer was uttered from the very depths of my soul, remembering that all the prayers that I had ever prayed before this time were prayers written by one who is long dead…. Prayers written in some prayer book. But this one prayer caused me to realize that written prayers do not count for much in the sight of God.”

It was then that the miracle began to take place. Natale could noticeably feel that a change was taking place both in his body physically and in his soul spiritually. Natale immediately began to praise God and rejoicing as never before. “It seemed as though I was now walking in a light, a light which I never saw before. Yes, dear friend, this was the Light that I never saw before; this was the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Natale was completely healed by the power of God and from that day forward, he made up his mind to be a living witness to the healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ, as manifested by the Holy Ghost. “Remembering that these were the days of the Great Depression, things were not easy for anyone. But it seemed as though with the Lord Jesus as my companion, everything was made easier,” remarked Natale Anthony Stranges, the evangelist who inspired his son Frank to follow in his footsteps.

From Keller Venus Files: Rev. Natale A. Stranges, considered to be a “living testimony for God,” outside his home in Brooklyn, New York.

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part II)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

From Keller Venus Files: Dr. Frank E. Stranges took up the fight for UFO disclosure as early as 1958, following his move to Southern California.

Ministerial Work

Dr. Frank E. Stranges’ years of service to the Lord Jesus Christ began at the age of 13 when he and his father Natale were called upon to preach in a number of Spanish churches in Brooklyn. Young Frank continued to work in missionary endeavors with his father up to his graduation from Bushwick High School, at which time he enrolled in the Eastern Bible Institute in Irvington, New Jersey. There he met Bernice C. Raab and they were married at the Pentecostal Church in Newark, New Jersey, in May of 1948. In 1949, Frank E. Stranges graduated from the Eastern Bible Institute with a Bachelor of Theology degree and a license to serve as a minister of the gospel. And following his graduation, Frank and Bernice embarked upon Christian pioneering work and helped to establish the Spring Lake Assembly of God Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Initially, church services were held in members’ homes, then in a high school gym, and finally in a tent erected on a vacant lot.

From Keller Venus Files: Bernice C. Raab, also a student at the Eastern Bible Institute of Irvington, New Jersey, married Dr. Frank Sranges in May 1948 at the Pentecostal Church in Newark, New Jersey, and from there helped him establish his ministerial career.

All the while preaching in Minnesota, Frank enrolled in night classes at North Central Bible College, for the purpose of continuing his theological studies. The college is now known as North Central University, a private Christian institution in Minneapolis, Minnesota, associated with the Assemblies of God. It is owned and operated by eleven Assemblies of God districts in the upper Midwest. It was founded in 1930 and is fully accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Frank E. Stranges graduated from North Central Bible College in 1951 with a Master’s degree in Theology.

Having received the Master’s degree, he resigned his pastorship in the Spring Lake Church and affiliated himself with the Independent Assemblies of God, laboring for the next two years at the recently constructed Revival Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He also enrolled in his denomination’s School of Theology in Merrimack, New Hampshire, where he received his Doctor of Divinity degree in 1956. Of course, working for a church organization is not always the most lucrative occupation, so Dr. Frank Stranges had to supplement his income with employment as a special agent for a number of detective agencies. The knowledge he gained and proficiency he developed as an investigator, would later help Dr. Stranges substantially as went on to become one of the world’s preeminent researchers of UFO phenomena.

By 1956, Dr. Stranges had moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he served as the first editor of the Independent Assemblies of God Church’s monthly periodical, Vision Magazine, as well as vice-president and professor at the Baltimore Bible College. He served in these positions for the next two years, before moving with Bernice to Los Angeles, California, where he established and became president of the International Evangelism Crusades and a minister of the New Age Cathedral in Los Angeles. He also became a well-known voice on the radio with his Sunday morning Truth on the March broadcasts aired on numerous stations throughout California and the surrounding states.

Newspaper cartoon from the early 1950s mocks the official position of the United States Air Force that “Flying saucers don’t exist.”

Involvement in Ufology

Towards the end of the decade of the 1950s, the reality of UFOs or “flying saucers,” as they were more popularly known back then, had been thoroughly questioned by the public at large, especially out in Southern California, which was recognized as the epicenter of the flying saucer phenomenon. There was also a plentitude of Southern California residents actually claiming contact with the flying saucer occupants, usually out in some isolated desert location in Riverside County.

The all-important question concerning the origin of the mysterious flying saucers had been hurled at the government leaders in numerous countries around the free world; but no one in any position of authority was forthcoming with any satisfactory answers. In the United States, it was the responsibility of the Air Force to investigate reports of flying saucers. In 1953, the Air Force’s UFO investigative body, Project Blue Book, was established at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and headed up by Major Edward J. Ruppelt.

Following the appearance of a fleet of flying saucers over the Washington, D.C., national airport in the summer of 1952, Ruppelt opined that the Air Force had “fouled up in not fully investigating the sightings.” Of course, in December of 1953, the Central Intelligence Agency-commissioned special panel headed up by Howard P. Robertson, that had been looking into this matter of UFOs for the past year, and was known as the Robertson Panel, recommended that, “A public education campaign should be undertaken in order to reduce public interest in the subject, thereby minimizing the risk of swamping air defense systems with reports at critical times, and that civilian UFO groups should be closely monitored.” Sadly, the more objective Ruppelt did not last the year, and was replaced as the Blue Book director in favor of the more compliant Captain Charles Hardin, whose philosophy from the very beginning of his tenure was that, “Anyone who is even interested in UFOs is crazy.”

Of course, this kind of subterfuge on the part of the Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agency was unsatisfactory to Dr. Frank E. Stranges, the Assemblies of God minister who always demanded to know the truth with regard to any matter, not just UFOs. Dr. Stranges wasn’t alone in his outrage against the Air Force brass and Central Intelligence Agency operatives who were hiding the facts from the public about the appearance of flying saucers in our skies and the occasional reports about the landing of these objects and the disembarkation of their occupants who were communicating with persons from all walks of life throughout the world. Private airlines were investigating UFO reports in addition to several newly organized civilian flying saucer research groups and organizations.

Said Dr. Frank E. Stranges of those critical times, “But unbeknownst to many, the church world is also asking questions that are, for the most part, being avoided by the ministry. As President of the International Evangelism Crusades, my position has taken me across the United States several times fulfilling invitations from churches of various denominations. We have also been busily engaged of late in UFO lecture work in theaters and auditoriums. This has brought me to the attention of many religious-minded people.”

Dr. Stranges continued, “My files are full of letters from these people who have asked the question concerning UFOs and who have given the same answer throughout the United States. Some ministers have even caused fear to take the place of common sense and truth. People have also been threatened into forgetting all about the UFO subject, otherwise they would find themselves dabbling in mysteries that would result in the ‘loss of their soul.’ This, indeed, is typical of the narrowness and lack of insight of many members of the clergy. Many church people today, in reality, are still walking in the shoes of fear and superstition.”

Clergy Criticized

The doctor of divinity noted that some of his fellow clergy members, in their own strange way, were contributing to the ignorance of many, with respect to the matters of the existence of the flying saucers and life beyond the Earth. According to Dr. Stranges, “It would be of incalculable value if these men would permit themselves to be open for truth. Jesus Christ himself stated, ‘Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part III)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

Dr. Stranges did not hesitate to talk about flying saucers from the pulpit, insofar as those in his congregation expressed a great deal of interest in the subject, especially with the phenomenon’s relationship with the scriptures. In ufology circles in the late 1950s, he was one of the few ministers speaking out on this important matter in the emerging space age.

In a sermon entitled, “A Man of the Cloth Looks at Flying Saucers,” Dr. Stranges stressed the importance of his subject matter as being a “phenomenon that could affect the human race.” What follows is a transcript of Dr. Stranges’ initial sermon on flying saucers as it was given from his pulpit in the period of 1958-1969, and updated as necessary, while he continued to personally investigate UFO reports from various areas of the United States that he visited in the course of his ministerial work. It has been edited by me and reconstructed in parts that have been lost, were unclear or grammatically incorrect. I have also taken the liberty of adding footnotes where clarifications of the text may require it. Nothing of the content or context has been altered. In this manner, I have tried to accurately present Dr. Frank Stranges’ evolving opinions concerning the UFO presence on our planet.

-Cosmic Ray

Typical flying saucer as frequently reported in the 1950s. Illustration from Channel 9 Bay News, Spectrum Cable Television, Tampa Bay, Florida.

A Man of the Cloth Looks at Flying Saucers

By Dr. Frank E. Stranges

“If the 21^st century is going to be the century of the Moon, the 22^nd is likely to be the century of the asteroids.” -Dr. Isaac Asimov

UFO Phenomenon

Heretofore, the subject of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) has been treated as ridiculous. The United States Air Force maintains that they still have not one iota of tangible evidence that proves the existence of unidentified flying objects. Yet, the records show otherwise. The ramifications of the UFO mystery are varied and complex. The far-reaching effects of this mystery certainly are a tremendous challenge to this and generations to come. The United States government budget for the investigation of UFOs has far exceeded 200 million dollars. To state that these things do not exist would indeed be a slap in the face to the masses of intelligent people who inhabit this planet and claim to have seen these objects, some of these even coming in contact with the flying saucer occupants. Also, what could have Christ inferred when he said, “Other sheep I have that are not of this fold?”¹

Local Stars in the Galaxy

Our Sun is a small star. If we consider the twenty brightest stars in the sky, our Sun would be the least luminous. The star which is nearest to the Sun is called Alpha Centauri. It is a little more than four light years from the Sun and is about one-third brighter than the Sun.

The next nearest star among the twenty brightest is Sirius, which is eight light years from the Sun and thirty times brighter. Then we would have to go out into space eleven light years to find Procyon, which is about seven times brighter than the Sun.

Vega is 27 light years from the Sun and 63 times more luminous. In order to take in all twenty of the brightest stars, we would have to go as far as 540 light years into space, where we would find Rigel, which is 21,000 times more luminous than the Sun.

These distances become somewhat fantastic when you consider that one light year is 5,800,000,000,000 miles.

Two of the twenty brightest stars have surfaces that are comparatively cool and so give off very little light. The reason they are among the twenty brightest stars is their tremendous size. Betelgeuse is larger than the orbit of the Earth. It is 300 light years away. When you consider that the nearest star is about 23 trillion miles away from the Earth, and the rest of the stars in our galaxy many times that, you begin to see how isolated is our solar system.

For any being on a planet near any star to find our Earth is like looking for a needle in a haystack. In the universe, our Earth is a tiny speck. When John the Revelator speaks of seeing a “new heaven and a new Earth,”² he must be talking about something much nearer than the nearest star. Even in our solar system distances may become fantastic.

Dr. Frank E. Stranges was one of the first to note that reports of flying saucers multiplied substantially when the orbit of the planet Mars was in conjunction with the orbit of the Earth. Artwork source: British UFO Research Association (BUFORA).

Solar System

If you were on one of the more distant planets, such as Uranus or Pluto, the Sun would appear as a very tiny star. It would give little in the way of light or heat, yet that tiny star throws out such a tremendous magnetic field that it holds the planets captive and controls their movements.

Scientists are now making intensive investigations to determine, if they can, how this power can be used to counteract or reverse gravity, thereby making interstellar flight possible. This investigation has been sparked by the thousands of persons who have filed reports of unidentified flying objects in the sky.

The planets nearest the Earth are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.³ Mercury is so close to the Sun that we can learn very little about it. The same is true, to a lesser extent, of Venus. Those two planets have orbits smaller than the Earth’s. They travel between the Earth and the Sun.

We can see Venus when it rises a few minutes before the Sun or when it sets a few minutes after the Sun. Therefore, even though it is a planet, sometimes it is seen as the “Morning Star” and sometimes the “Evening Star.” It is about the same size as the Earth. It travels around the Sun in 225 days. Venus is the only celestial object mentioned in the Bible by name in connection with the new heavens and the new Earth: “And I will give him the Morning Star” (Revelation 2:28).⁴ This would suggest that something is going to happen on Venus in connection with the new heaven.⁵

Mars has an orbit larger than that of the Earth, so Mars is an easier planet to study. Instead of looking toward the Sun when we look at Mars, we are looking away from the Sun. The orbit of Mars is one and a half times larger than the orbit of the Earth. When Mars and the Earth are on the same side of the Sun, then Mars is only half the distance to the Sun away from the Earth (about 45 million miles).

The orbits of the planets are not perfect circles, but are somewhat elongated, so there are times when Mars is even nearer the Earth. When two heavenly bodies are in close proximity, they are said to be in “conjunction.”

Mars is about one half the size of the Earth. It moves around the Sun in 687 days. It is in conjunction with the Earth every 26 months. At rare intervals, the conjunction comes at a time when the Earth is farthest away from the Sun and therefore nearest to Mars.

It is at these times that astronomers become very excited about the opportunities of studying the surface of Mars. Telescopes have been improved; and the great new discoveries of the amplification of light will make it possible, eventually, to bring objects on the surface of Mars into a larger focus. It will then be possible to determine whether life exists there.

The interest in Mars has been heightened by the appearance in the sky of flying objects unknown in this world. These have come with greater frequency each time Mars approaches the Earth.

The discovery of a means to amplify light is probably the greatest invention of our day, if not all time. Light may be amplified as much as 20,000 times. Brilliant pictures can be made of objects that are in almost total darkness.

The efficiency of telescopes may be increased hundreds of times. We will know with certainty what is going on in the heavens. Whenever the possibility of life on other planets is discussed, the principal factor has always been the matter of atmosphere, whether or not there is air in sufficient quantities to support life.

The Earthlike conditions do not exist on Venus or Mars; and therefore, it has been supposed that life could not exist on those bodies. But, as we shall see, such conditions are not necessary for life. They only raise the possibility that a different kind of life exists.

At an extension course in astronomy held by the University of Minnesota at Duluth, the instructor was once discussing the theory that flying saucers are coming from some planet farther away than Mars.

In some amazement, Rev. A. E. Bloomfield, a local minister and editor of the Prophet Ensign magazine, asked, “But the astronomer believes in flying saucers?!”

“Oh, yes!” she declared. “My only question is where they are coming from.”

Rev. Bloomfield then said, “You mean that flying saucers actually exist and are coming from outer space?”

She answered: “I think that they are too perfect to be coming some place as near as Mars. If they had been coming from Mars, they would have gotten here before they had been brought to their present state of perfection.”

One of the strongest pieces of evidence in favor of the reality of flying saucers is the attempt by the government to keep information from the public. There is a stiff penalty for any member of the armed forces who reveals a saucer report without authority. Fortunately, this does not apply to civilians.

United States Armed Forces and Flying Saucers

There is every evidence that the armed forces take flying saucers very seriously. This can be seen in the reports that follow. You will notice that there is an “explanation;” but the explanation never adequately explains what the people saw.

It has been said, time and again, that we are not alone in this vast, uncharted universe. The very thought of other “intelligent beings” watching us has stirred the heart of many a good person.

The world of religion has been a bit shaken because several religious leaders have voiced opinions for the case of the UFOs. The suggestion of a superior religion replacing the present theology has drawn fire from many ecclesiastical headquarters.

But, let us examine a few facts. Statements of outstanding authorities have been making headlines. Among these, those made by Dr. Wernher von Braun, the rocket scientist from the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, who said, “There is a rational and rather straightforward explanation for the great majority of sightings of unidentified flying objects, or flying saucers. Since the first mysterious objects were reported in 1947, the United States Air Force official investigators have tabulated thousands of sightings. They can account for about 98 percent of these as balloons, aircraft, reflection of ground lights, meteorites, planets, hoaxes perpetrated by pranksters, ball lightning or plasma cloud phenomena observed and photographed near high tension power lines.”⁶

Artist’s conception of the Prophet Ezekiel’s “Wheel Within a Wheel” UFO, observed near the river Chebar in the Middle East, circa 600 B.C.E. Artwork source: Martian Herald.

Bible and Flying Saucers

The Bible scholar, along with the serious pastor, has often considered the Bible as more than a mere book. It is truly the inspired word of the living God, as written by men who, in turn, wrote as the Spirit of God so moved them. The first chapter of the Book of Ezekiel has been quoted many times in an effort to ascertain the possibility that the prophet actually experienced a sighting of an unidentified flying object. Let us examine this treatise.

To begin with, the purpose in pointing out the following is to stimulate, if not awaken you, to the unusual similarity in the ancient record of the round flying craft of Biblical times and the circular UFOs that are reported seen today.

Ezekiel’s prophecy is enveloped in a twofold ministry:

1. To denounce the sins of professing children of the Kingdom of God.

2. To sustain the faithful ones with the promise of God’s faithfulness both to deliver them and to judge their oppressors.

Not only is Ezekiel a prophet, but he is also a priest who pleads and beseeches God on behalf of the sins of his people.

Now Ezekiel slowly and dramatically begins to unfold the essence of his tremendous account of his “vision:”

He says, “I was among the captives by the river Chebar.⁷ The heavens opened and I saw visions of God. Behold, a whirlwind came out of the north….”

Isaiah 14:13 indicates that “the sides of the north” is the location of God’s throne. A scientist recently made the statement that, “The whole universe of stars and celestial bodies is traveling through space in a northward direction.”

There are scriptures that indicate that God’s throne is northward, such as the one referred to in “the sides of the north,” as mentioned above. In Psalm 75:6-7 David declares, “For promotion cometh neither from the east nor the west nor from the south. But God is the judge: He putteth down one and setteth up another.” This scripture is vividly indicative of the location of God’s glorious throne.

Ezekiel continues, “Behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and fire enfolding itself, and a brightness was about it and out of the midst thereof, as the color of amber,⁸ out of the midst of the fire (Ezekiel 1:4).”

An unusual characteristic of UFOs is the manner in which they change color in flight. First, let us examine the subject of the neon effects (Aurora Borealis-like) of saucers from the standpoint of the visible spectrum or that portion of the “octave” sensitive to our visible apparatus.

Colors are nothing more than a series of differing wavelengths of which the human visual mechanism is only capable, on average, of perceiving those lying between 3,800 and 8,000 angstrom units. For example, “red” is evoked upon our visual apparatus by waves measuring 760 millimicrons in length,⁹ while “yellow” is 574.5 millimicrons in length and “violet is 385 millimicrons.

Therefore, in spacecraft, we only see color changes our eye mechanisms are equipped to see.

The same holds true of our colorful advertising displayed by neon tubes. We mention the neon tubes because the principle of it is the same as that which applies to the color changes emitted by saucers.

Neon is an inert gaseous element found in our atmosphere that when put under electrical pressure in a partial vacuum, such as found in a tube, emits a reddish glow. This tells us what is happening when you see a flying saucer surrounded by a red glow. It also indicates that there is an invisible, partial vacuum-like tube, or screen, surrounding the craft.

It has been generally accepted that as the speed of the craft increases, so does the luminosity, in effect producing brighter colors.¹⁰ Therefore, it is not too unusual for UFO sighting reports to be accompanied by stories of the craft “changing color” while in flight. The military recorders should remember the words of Abraham Lincoln on 29 May 1856, “You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

Ezekiel saw an immense cloud of fire whirling and rolling out of the north or out of the heavenly realm. From out of that cloud emitted a golden light (amber). Then he beholds a light that surrounds four living creatures, because he then said, “Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures (Ezekiel 1:5).”

He goes on to say, “They sparkled like the color of burnished brass (Ezekiel 1:7).” The implication here denotes that this event has something to do with the judgement of God. Not that they themselves are being sent to the judgement; but they appear at that time when judgement has been poured out upon those who are unfaithful and rebellious to His Holy Word. Brass, throughout the Bible, is symbolic of judgement.

Ezekiel proceeds to explain the peculiar characteristics of the living creatures that he is looking at when he says, “As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, the face of a lion, on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle (Ezekiel 1:10).”

Naturally, these are four face symbols. They certainly represent something valid. In Revelation 5:9, we note them again with the same faces, but now they are bowing before the Lamb of God crying, “Thou hast redeemed us to God and Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue, and people and nation.” Could these be symbolic representatives of redeemed humanity? Their number is the number of physical existence- “four,” and it is also the number of “man.”

Ezekiel continues: “And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by¹¹ them. And when the living creatures were lifted up from the Earth, the wheels were lifted up. Withersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go. And the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went. And when those stood still, these did: And when those were lifted up from the Earth the wheels lifted up over against them, for the spirit (life) of the living creatures was in the wheels (Ezekiel 1:19-21).”

This would suggest that the “wheels” are actually a heavenly craft.

Some scholars have hinted that the wheel is merely a halo of glory, while others have considered this to be an actual craft. Verse 16 attempts to present a more vivid explanation: “The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of beryl: And they four had one likeness: And their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.”

Please note that beryl is a silicate of aluminum; and although it contains a great deal of color, yet it is metallic in appearance. Ezekiel strongly suggests that what is seen is no doubt an actual round symmetrical dome in the center of a wheel in which the living creatures are present during the time that the “wheel” is in actual flight.

He definitely indicated that they move through the air horizontally (Ezekiel 1:17). He goes on and states, “As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful: And their rings were full of eyes round about them four (Ezekiel 1:18).” He states here that around the living creatures, upon the wheel, are eyes, or actually portholes, as we would interpret them today. This would also explain the idea of the dome on the top side center of the wheel.

From 1600 A.D., early problems with satellite television reception: “They want their MTV.”

A point to examine is the significant manner in which these wheels motivate. “Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went (Ezekiel 1:20).” Also, “As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burned coals of fire,¹² and like the appearance of lamps: It went up and down among the living creatures: and the fire was bright and out of the fire went forth lightning (Ezekiel 1:13).” In addition, we find, “And the living creatures ran¹³ and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning (Ezekiel 1:14).”

1897 UFO Flap: Cigar-Shaped “Airship” Surveys the United States

The writer has reviewed each of the following incidents in their complete coverage, but likes the concise, itinerant chronicling superbly handled by the Reader’s Digest in their July 1952 issue:

“In April 1897, United States newspapers from coast to coast gave front-page space to a huge, cigar-shaped ‘airship’ cruising around Chicago. Late in March, dispatches from the West described a ‘cigar-shaped’ object, with no motive power, ‘certainly not steam,’ first reported near Sacramento, California, then Denver, Colorado. On March 29, according to the New York Herald, it was seen ‘by a majority of the residents of Omaha. It was in the shape of a bright light, too big for a balloon.’ The New York Sun stated that, ‘Kansas City trolley cars stopped,’ and soon the whole population was watching it from the street and rooftops. The light was as big as that produced by twenty stars. Stories poured into the Chicago Tribune: ‘Reputable citizens of Eldora, Iowa, say they observed the gigantic airship. One man said it resembled an immense bird of polished silver. In Milwaukee thousands of people saw it. The machine floated over the City Hall, where it stopped for a quarter of an hour.’”

As we continue the exploration of this question, we must first be ready to admit that there is something to talk about hovering above us in the skies.

Russia and the Flying Saucer Mystery

The saucer mystery has in many cases pierced the Iron Curtain. Many letters to Russian newspapers, quoted by Agence France Presse, told of a “flying cigar” sighted by many Soviet citizens, and “colored lights” spotted by the inhabitants of Gomel. While the newspapers printed the letters, their respective editors warned the readers severely about the “power of imagination.” Leonard H. Stringfield, the editor of the Civilian Research- Interplanetary Flying Objects Newsletter (Cincinnati, Ohio), stated that these reports leave much to be said for United States secret weapons.

The same issues regarding UFOs and Russia, brought up by Dr. Frank E. Stranges in the late 1950s, continue to be brought up in contemporary American media. Source: Fox News.

The long arm of Russian intelligence misses little or nothing. As a matter of fact, their agents have stolen TOP SECRET “stuff” in the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), where the security is the strictest. Paralleling AEC security is UFO research; but while the American public is occasionally taken into confidence on nuclear matters, it has not been officially informed concerning the flying saucer mystery. It seems almost unfair that John Q. Public must get his information from indirect sources, even for a time, from cheap girlie magazines. This is one of the reasons why Christians today are not “in the know” when it comes to UFO information. During my travels through the United States and other countries, I have found but a handful of Christians who are informed on this subject.

I am very happy that many bold writers have ventured forth to join the ranks of those who are not afraid to speak up on the subject of flying saucers. It is gratifying to realize that men of intelligence and men of courage are writing and commenting on the UFO mystery. Yes, these men are not silent!

However, silence on the part of the authorities has lulled many into believing saucers are entirely American. On the other hand, a closer look at the facts, relative to the “Russian menace,” should rule out, once and for all, this fallacy:

1. Saucers have been on parade, in clear photographic view, over every nation on Earth since 1944 and earlier. Let me ask, “Why advertise a super-secret device when the testing could be confined to the Western States, the Central Pacific, or, if need be, the interior of Australia?”

2. Saucers on parade would suggest a flagrant violation of the world’s sensitive national boundaries.

3. Saucers on parade, if secret, would act as a tipoff for Russian espionage agents, already successfully at work.

4. Saucers on parade, if executed as bait for Russia, would represent a slap in the face to Americans, honest and qualified, who are ridiculed for sighting something that is theirs to begin with.

Then again, if the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) were in command of flying saucers, isn’t it probable that they would have destroyed America by now? Let’s examine the power of the UFO.

It has been given such names as cosmic ships, extraterrestrial vehicles, outer space rocket ships, flying saucers, and, of course, the name given by the United States Air Force, unidentified flying objects.

The speed of the UFO has been clocked at about 19,000 miles per hour. Electromagnetic or electro-gravitational force fields, according to most scientists and researchers, have the greatest potential for future space travel; and they seem to indicate that this type of propulsion is now directly related to the various characteristics of flying saucers.

Observations suggest that flying saucers are capable of transcending the force of gravity. It is doubtful, at this writing, that anyone on Earth has found the means to do so. Then again, if the UFO were a Russian secret device, it is hardly likely that the risk of allowing one to be shot down and captured by the Americans would be taken. The possession of a UFO would make it possible for the Russians to build gigantic telescopes in the universe which would magnify a millionfold. Placed at a height of 26,400 miles above the center of the Earth, they would take exactly one day to circle the Earth once. They could bring the Earth’s surface to view as near as forty miles and entirely replace reconnaissance flights over large American cities and arms centers. The safe workings of the UFO, attested by a long series of reports, clearly indicate a very old invention which has disposed of the troublesome “bugs” of early stages of development. It is a space machine capable of outdistancing and outmaneuvering any Earth-inspired aerial device or vehicle.

Russians have gone on record as declaring themselves, for the most part, atheistic in their beliefs. The teachings of communism clearly point where they stand on the Bible and Christian teachings. They claim that the Bible is a pack of lies, the Christian is grossly misled and the church is an obstacle. On the other hand, the Bible speaks for itself in Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

It is the opinion of this writer that Russia is absolutely not the answer to the riddle of the flying saucer.

Of late, the authorities in the USSR have released the following statement: “UFOs are an invention of the United States government to keep the minds of the people off of their current problems.

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part IV)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

Photo source: https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/apocalypse.html.

Perilous Times

In early 1959, many of the theologians in Evangelical circles, much like Dr. Frank E. Stranges, were of the opinion that the days of the Earth were numbered, that the long-predicted “Doomsday” was just around the corner. The doctor of divinity wrote, “I dare not deny the fact that the Bible teaches that when that time shall come, even the time of the end, those who have received the ‘truth’ in their hearts shall be saved and shall further be invited to enter into the heavenlies to dwell with the Master and Creator of all humankind. Then, on the other hand those who have constantly refused to walk in the light, yet persisting to do evil continually, shall be condemned to dwell eternally in the place called ‘Hell,’ which was originally made for the devil and his angels (those fallen from Heaven).”¹⁴

As any Evangelical knows, an individual condemns herself or himself by failing to take heed of the great truths revealed in the Bible, God’s word. The astute Bible reader will come to an understanding of the marvelous provisions God has in store for the benefit of all who come to Him with a humble heart and a contrite spirit. Through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, God has provided us with a way of salvation. In Jesus, healing and a deep spiritual experience is available to every believer; and for the one walking in faith, they need not fear the coming doomsday. Dr. Stranges wrote, “The Lord Almighty is beginning to do a great work before our eyes, even in this generation. It is mighty evident that He is preparing all of us for signs and wonders that have been thought long expired.”¹⁵

In the Old Testament verse of Isaiah 42:9, the Hebrew prophet declared, “Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: Before they spring forth, I tell you of them.” Isaiah was not just addressing the so-called “spiritual elite” of his day, but anyone who loved God and desired to hold on to His promises. Dr. Stranges remarked that, “We will note in days to come, that our Heavenly Master will reveal Himself to whomsoever he chooses. Therefore, the meek, humble, honest truth-seekers will find that a closer walk with God will indeed reap great far-reaching dividends. I believe that before doomsday is ushered in, we will see the promises of Christ come to pass.”¹⁶

Action Urgently Needed

Dr. Frank E. Stranges was of the opinion that, “Actions speak louder than words,” especially when it came to the life of the Christian. Dr. Stranges explains exactly what he considers possible for the contemporary follower of the Lord Jesus Christ to accomplish in her or his walk with the Savior:

“By greater works, did the Master imply that we would far surpass His mighty acts? Remember what He did. He opened blind eyes, loosed deaf ears, caused the lame to run, even raised the dead. He performed mighty acts called miracles before the very eyes of doubters and mockers. Jesus said that, ‘Greater works shall ye do.’ If this is true, it is wrong to look for this time to take place? Today the world is in need of seeing the Christian in action.

“They have been listening to our boasts for a long time. Now is the time to either lay hold of the promises of God or else stop telling the world that we have something that we do not indeed. Also, God tells us, ‘Whatsoever ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven. Whatsoever ye loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven.’ Have we yet discovered the laws of binding and loosing? It is possible that today we can command the hand of God? I believe that the whole world will see the power of God in action ‘in His people’ before the Earth is visited by doomsday. I believe that this new thing will bot be governed nor controlled by humankind. It will be of God and my God to usward who believe and dare to live in such a place in Christ that we can be the recipients of this great outpouring of God’s power. A new age of spiritual awakening and spiritual power is upon us. Let us claim it in Jesus’ name.”

This fresco, titled “Crucifixion,” by an unknown artist, was applied to the back wall of a Serbian chapel in Kosovo back in 1350, A.D. Clearly, extraterrestrial spaceships have been visiting our planet down through the ages. Enlargements of upper left and right flying objects depicted in the mural are found in two bottom frames.

Flying Saucers and the New Age

Clearly, in this modern age there are still horizons of depth and height which have yet to be explored. The hand of God, in all of His creative acts, seems to extend far beyond that which are feeble minds are even capable of comprehending. Perhaps theology, the science of spirit, may provide more answers to future questions certain to arise in the circles of hard, material scientists about our mysterious universe. Fearing that theology bordered more on the realms of fear and superstition, the concoction of theories to explain the universe from religious fanatics of more medieval ages, contemporary scientists have failed to even consider the spiritual nature and implications of observed phenomena. The doctor of divinity explained why the arrival of the flying saucers held particular importance in these perilous times:

“Nevertheless, the Lord, who has promised, by His spirit, to lead and guide us in all truth, will certainly not expect you and I to die first with the sincere hope that somewhere in the far distant future, Christ will sit down and explain to us the mysteries of the universe. I believe that these are days of revelation. The coming of the saucers is perhaps only one phase of this great New Age in which you and I have the privilege of living.

“Now, you can completely close your mind to everything that you hear, read and see in connection with this thought. You can crawl back into the shell and quietly close it and sit in the darkness, feeling sorry for everything and everybody, or you can bask in the wonderful sunlight that God is abundantly granting to those who love the ‘light.’”

From Dr. Frank E. Stranges, one learns how to depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ as never before. In these first decades of the 21^st century, we especially note that politics has failed to bring lasting peace on Earth. Therefore, we should follow Dr. Stranges’ admonition to look to the Author of Peace, He who is the Prince of Peace. Dr. Stranges boldly declared, “Let not your hearts be troubled concerning wars, bombs, missiles, international or national difficulties, but may your heart and mind be eternally stayed upon God. Think pure. Abstain from evil opinions. Net result, if you walk with Him, He will walk with you. You will draw close to Christ. Your mind will be quickened to receive that which God has for you in these days.”

That the subjects of flying saucers and extraterrestrial life will find further illumination during these times of quickening I have no doubt. As Dr. Stranges might say, “May God bless you, dear one, is my earnest prayer.”

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part V)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

“Flying Saucerama”

Once Dr. Stranges and his wife Bernice were situated in Southern California in 1958 and active in the work of their evangelical ministry, it soon became apparent that many in their congregation were particularly concerned about the flying saucer phenomenon. Of course, Dr. Stranges had been studying the appearance of UFOs and their association with strange beings in the pages of the Bible.

Dr. Stranges firmly believed that there was a spiritual significance to the UFOs and their occupants, but he felt that it in order to substantiate this theory he would have to collect more data. He asked the members of his International Evangelism Crusades, Inc., to send him everything clipping they could find in newspapers and magazines about the subject of UFOs, and also to keep him informed of any personal encounters they may have had about UFOs or even any occupant sightings as well. As word got out in the Southern California ufology community, others came to Dr. Stranges from throughout the United States with more information, and the reverend doctor even went out on personal field investigations of particular UFO cases. He also began to build up his own UFO library, which soon became one of the more extensive in California.

From all of this collected UFO material, Dr. Stranges put together his first book on the subject, which he titled Flying Saucerama (New York City: Vantage Press), which was published in the following year. The book is lavishly illustrated and peppered with photos of UFOs and prominent ufologists from the 1950s. The doctor still hadn’t made up his mind about the contactees, however, so he limited his book to a rundown on UFO sightings only. He held in high esteem the retired Marine Corps Major Donald E. Keyhoe, then the director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena in Washington, D.C., who believed that some UFOs were extraterrestrial spaceships, but most likely unmanned reconnaissance vehicles, and that the United States Air Force, and the government as a whole, were concealing this fact about the UFO origins from the public under the pretext of safeguarding national security and preventing panic from sweeping the country. Keyhoe did not think too highly of the contactees; but Dr. Stranges, who became quite familiar and made friends of many of them in Southern California, was at least willing to hear them out. With many of the contactees, Dr. Stranges had a sneaking suspicion that they really met certain entities out in the Mojave Desert that they were speaking and writing about, but he wasn’t all that certain that they were coming from other planets, at least such orbs as can be physically seen through telescopes by astronomers in our own solar system.

In the acknowledgments and credits to Flying Saucerama, Dr. Stranges wrote: “The author desires to express his sincere appreciation to the following for their cooperation and advice in the compilation of material for this volume:

“Major Donald E. Keyhoe, United States Marine Corps, Ret., director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), Washington, D.C.; Leonard H. Stringfield, director of the Civilian Research Investigation, Flying Objects (CRIFO) and editor of that organization’s Orbit newsletter; August C. Roberts, flying saucer researcher and photographer; Rev. Arthur E. Bloomfield, editor of the Prophetic Ensign magazine of Burket, Indiana; the staff of the Voice of Healing magazine in Dallas, Texas; Bradford Chambers, author of the book, Interplanetary Space and Travel (New York City: Stravon Publishers, 1956), Max Miller, author of the book, Flying Saucers: Fact or Fiction (Los Angeles, California: Trend Books, 1957); and the staff of True or False magazine (New York City).”

Testimony of August C. Roberts

As noted in the acknowledgments above, August C. Roberts of Jersey City, New Jersey, is listed among those who had greatly aided Dr. Frank E. Stranges in his research that he conducted while writing Flying Saucerama. Roberts, like some 20,000 other Americans who from the period of 1947-1959, was not afraid to go on record and state, even in the face of a torrent of adverse criticism, that not only had he sighted a flying saucer, but even took a photograph of it. “Many have attempted to take advantage of Mr. Roberts’ good nature,” wrote Dr. Stranges, adding that, “but I wish to state that I deeply appreciate his sincerity and truthfulness in all matters pertaining to the flying saucer mystery.”

Now here is August C. Roberts’ story in his own words:

“I Saw and Photographed a Flying Saucer”

By August C. Roberts

What first aroused my interest in flying saucers was the lack of information on the subject. I had been following the case right along with mild interest: most of the information coming from the newspapers, magazines and books. Who was right regarding the flying saucers seen in the sky? Was it the reasonable and intelligent person who supposedly spotted them, or the United States Air Force, which endeavored to “explain away” what they saw?

Almost everyone by now knows or has read about the following cases:

1. Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of nine flying disks in the state of Washington in 1947.

2. The Tacoma affair, in which two men were killed in the crash of a B-25 carrying what was supposed to be parts of a flying disk.

3. On 7 January 1948, Captain James Mantell, with a flight of three F-51s passing near Goodman Air Force Base in Kentucky, was requested by the field control tower to investigate a strange object over the field; and in so doing was killed and his plane demolished.

What really happened? The United States Air Force decided that Captain Mantell was chasing the planet Venus, which is a fairly good explanation, except that Venus was not in that vicinity at that particular time. There are hundreds of more cases of the sighting of flying disks on record. I could go on and on, but since time and space does not permit, I will cite only a few of the more interesting ones.

First, a New Jersey pilot with years of experience fired his guns at a flying disk, but no reasons were given or information concerning the outcome. Why? Then, an Eastern Airlines captain and his co-pilot, on their early morning flight, were amazed when a huge, wingless, tube-shaped aircraft traveling at tremendous speed zoomed past them and disappeared into a cloud, trailing a red-orange exhaust flame thirty feet long. Its wash rocked their DC-3. Was that Venus too? Another time, Lieutenant George Gorman chased a mysterious light in the sky in a twenty-minute flight at speeds varying from 300 to 400 miles per hour, outmaneuvering him at every twist and turn. Was this his imagination? The one I liked best, and which stimulated my interest in the subject, happened on 10 July 1948, in Phoenix, Arizona. William A. Rhodes took two photographs of a flying disk overhead, using an ordinary box camera. After they had been printed in the newspapers, not another word was mentioned about flying saucers for a long time. As the story goes, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent investigators to Rhodes’ home and requested the negatives. Three days later, when he asked for their return, he was told they had lost them. What I could say about this particular incident is not fit to print. I am wondering how they are going to explain away my own flying saucer photographs.

Two years ago, I signed up with the Civil Defense in Jersey City as a ground observer, more commonly known as a “plane spotter.” I thought my chances of seeing a disk would be much greater by doing so, although the flying saucer reports were few and far between, until early this year, when they began coming in from all about us. I began to take my camera with me whenever on duty and was at the observation post every spare minute, especially when a flying saucer was reported nearby. By now almost everyone at the post was flying saucer conscious.

During June 1952, Jersey City Police Inspector Joseph B Foley, supervisor of the Jersey City Ground Observation Post, had us on a “dry run” for a month getting us properly trained for 24-hour active duty, which commenced on 14 July.

On 19 July 1952, I read in the newspaper that a Mrs. Josephine Hetzel of 17 West Street, West Brighton, Staten Island, had spotted five flying disks. The newspaper clipping said, “I almost fainted when I saw what looked like five large dinner plates flying through the sky. They were in V-formation.” Mrs. Hetzel’s neighbor, Frank Gondar, of 15 West Street, described the objects as “flying like geese, bright in color, as fast as jet planes.”

When I read the article, I called our observation post to see if anything had been reported in our area. It was then I learned that we had seen them, too. When I checked the time, I found out it was only five minutes from the time Mrs. Hetzel had seen them.

I asked Leo Murphy, a spotter, what he had seen, and he told me he had only seen four, but about a mile behind them was another going in the same direction. He said he had not been too sure what it was, so he had not recorded it. It was listed like this in our logbook: “20:10- four flying saucers spotted by Observer Leo Murphy flying in a straight-line one-half mile apart.”

The following Sunday, a friend and I went to see Mrs. Hetzel and hear her story firsthand. In this way, we planned to compare reports. She said, “I was sitting in front of my house when suddenly five silver-colored disks with dark red rims, about as large as dinner plates, came right over the trees, over my head. I thought they were going to hit me, so I screamed. They flashed by, and my neighbor, Frank Gondar, who also was sitting in front of his house, came over to aid me. I was so shaken up by what I saw!” She said she had never believed in flying saucers before, and never again wanted to see them. From now on, she was convinced they really existed.

When the reports of saucers became localized, the Jersey Journal, our local newspaper, sent reporters to visit our post and get a story about flying disks for publication. Someone told them I was there with my cameras, a 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ Speed Graphic and a Leica. Since it is a job of “Operation Skywatch” to protect some of the most valuable real estate in the country- Manhattan as well as neighboring Jersey communities- anything that would happen on the Eastern Seaboard would eventually break loose here; and everything sighted is reported. They then published a small item about my waiting to see and photograph this phenomenon or disprove its existence, since it had been questioned considerably.

On 24 July 1952, George Conger, an observer, spotted a disk overhead heading for New York. Thus, it was listed in our logbooks: “10:05- flying saucer spotted by Observer George Conger. One- unknown- high overhead- flying southeast- looked like a shiny new dime.” Detective Ray Blascak, who was on the tower at the time using the phone, was called to come and look. However, it disappeared in about four or five seconds, before Detective Blascak could get there, so Conger was the only one was saw the object that morning.

As soon as I learned that Conger had spotted a saucer, I went to see him on the tower during his next shift. I asked him how he had come to spot the “unknown object.” He said he was looking straight overhead when he noticed the glint of the Sun on a metallic object in the sky. It was definitely round, and appeared about the size of a dime. As it flew along it was in a “tilted” position, i.e., with the lowest edge leading in its flight. There was absolutely no sound and no vapor trail. I asked I it could possibly have been a jet plane; and he said he could easily have identified any known type of aircraft. Furthermore, he said no jet plane or any other kind of plane could ever move with the tremendous speed of the disk. And I would like to point out, for the benefit of the skeptical, that George Conger is also a section leader of the Civil Defense Organization, a thoroughly qualified aerial observer.

From the files of the now defunct International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB), this drawing by Dominick C. Lucchesi depicts the Civilian Defense Skywatch Tower observers (from left to right) George Conger, Jim Leyden and August C. Roberts, with a borrowed F3.5 Lens 120 folding camera, at 12:11 a.m. on Monday, 28 July 1952.

I had spent quite a few weekends at the tower, including all-night shifts from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., since the reports of flying saucers had begun to come in from nearby localities. Inasmuch as Conger was now more than interested, having seen a saucer himself, I invited him to join Jim Leyden, another spotter, and myself on some night watches. He was happy to do so. Nothing was seen for three nights.

Early on the night of 27 July 1952, it was raining. So as not to get my cameras wet, I left them home. I arrived at the tower about 10 p.m., and Leo Murphy, who was just going home, gave us his camera, a F3.5 Lens 120 folding, with a bad shutter which stuck on slow speeds. James Leyden came on duty a little before midnight and George Conger at midnight. The shift supposed to be on duty did not arrive until 12:20 a.m. The three of us were alone on the tower- Leyden sitting inside reading and waiting for Conger or myself to spot a plane and call out to him. He, in turn, would call the filter station. George and I were sitting side by side on the highest part of the platform, he looking at anything in the sky that moved from the northeast, east and southeast, and I watching the southwest, west and northwest. He watched one-half of the sky and I the other. We had nothing in particular to look for, since the reports we had read in the newspapers differed, and every disk seen ha been reported to be traveling too fast.

We half expected to see only a streak of light, but not anything like what we saw at 12:11 a.m., Monday, 28 July 1952.

We were sitting there chatting when George suddenly said, “Hey, Roberts, lend me those glasses a minute. I’ve been watching a light there in the east by the Empire State Building, and it is acting funny. It doesn’t resemble a plane.” After studying it through the glasses, he called out, “Hey, Jimmy, come out and take a look at that damn light out there,” and started walking towards him. He handed Jimmy the glasses. Looking at the object, Jimmy said, “What the devil is it?” We thought it might be a light from a building, since it just hung there brightly. Then Jimmy handed me the glasses, and I too took a look. We did not know how to explain what we had seen, except to define it as a “flying saucer,” but George suggested we call it in anyway. Perhaps the filter station could confirm it. While he was talking, I had taken Leo’s camera out and was balancing it on the railing. Just as I opened the shutter of the camera, Jimmy jumped the three steps into the tower and jarred the whole platform railing. George raised the glasses again and remarked that it was the “oddest-looking thing.” When Leyden got the filter station on the phone, instead of calling in the message in a routine manner, he told them he did not know how to explain what we had just witnessed, except to say that there was a ball of light hovering in the east, orange in color, with a dark-brownish rim, very bright and flickering. The person on duty at the filter station must have checked his list and found that no planes were listed in that area, because he immediately had an Air Force officer talk to Leyden and question him about it. Leyden asked if any other reports had come in, to which he said, “Three so far- one from Plainfield, one from Tarrytown, and yours.” Leyden hung up and was called right back, I believe from an air base, from the way the man talked to him.

George kept watching the object while I was trying to look at the back of the camera in order to turn the film. It was too dark to see, so I just spun the knob a few times, placed the camera on the rail, called to the boys to stand still a few seconds, and took the second photo of the disk as it moved upwards a distance of its own length, as if undecided which way to go. Conger noticed that a searchlight beam was trying to catch it. Van, inside the tower, grabbed the phone from Leyden and told them about it. I took the 9 x 35-power binoculars and watched it until it was out of sight. I have already mentioned that it had a reddish-brown dot in the center and the rim was the same color. As it started to move a little faster to the southeast, the rim turned to a brighter red, like glowing metal. It moved up and away from us at the same time. As it turned, I got a good look at the depth of its edge, which I will mention later on. George, standing next to me, tried to find it, but it went into a cloudbank and was gone. When I asked him if he had seen it leave, he replied negatively. Leyden, still on the phone, told them we could no longer see it.

Shortly afterwards, I suggested to the fellows that we call the New York Daily News and find out if they had seen it, as it had been so close to their building, and also learn whether they had received any other reports. Leyden called. He was told that they had received two reports but were not interested in any more. He did not mention that we had seen it or had taken photographs. I suggested to Leyden that he record this in our logbook as soon as he could. (I have a photograph of the item as it appears.) Just about that time, the next group came upstairs. We told them what we had seen. They said they had been chatting together downstairs for a while before coming up and were sorry not to have come up on time at midnight, as they would have liked to have seen it too. We stayed on a while, hoping to see it again, but it never returned. At 3:00 a.m., two of the three recent arrivals went home, but one stayed on, thinking it might become visible again. At 3:30 a.m., we called in a plane which was zigzagging back and forth at about the same spot where we had seen the disk over New York. Nothing else happened, so I went home about 6 a.m. to develop the film.

Everyone was asleep, so I tried not to make any noise as I went into my darkroom and developed the film; but between overdeveloping and getting too close to the safe light, the film fogged up a little. I am not used to handling roll film, and it twisted up on me until it got wet and soft. Anyone who has ever tried to develop roll film will realize what I mean.

When I saw what the film contained, I felt heartsick- one frame was of a dancing light and the other registered just two spots; but I made a few prints anyway after washing the film. They did not look as bas as I first thought. I went back to the tower, arriving before Leyden and Conger went home. When they saw the prints, they were surprised that they turned out as well. Detective Blascak asked what the pictures were about. The boys had never mentioned them, because they had not expected them to come out. When Detective Blascak saw them, he immediately phoned Inspector Foley, who said he would come over as soon as he could.

Shortly afterwards, I left for home again to get some sleep, asking Leyden to warn me by phone if the Air Force came and “requested” the negatives, so that I could make a dozen or so prints before they took them over. Detective Blascak phoned the Air Force, and they sent a man out immediately to pick up the prints. I had been in bed only a short time when Jimmy called, telling me to work fast if I wanted those extra prints before the Air Force arrived. I made ten copies of each; and since I figured I would not get much sleep I went back to the police station and gave them a better set of prints. (The first ones had been made with wet negatives and done hurriedly.)

Told that they wanted the negatives, I was taken home by radio patrol car to get them. We went to the main police headquarters, where the police photographers checked the negatives and made a few prints for the newspapers. I was then driven back to the tower, where I had left my car, and headed for home and a little sleep.

In the afternoon I went back to the tower. Two men from our local newspaper came up with my prints, which they checked with the New York skyline. They told me they were double-checking the prints and had discovered that I had made the mistake of printing the negatives backwards. I told them I had better copies at my home. Naturally, they wanted the better ones, so we set out to get them. Once they saw them, they tried to talk me out of every one I had made. When they left, I was told I would be paid for the use of the prints, but I never have been.

Back at the tower, one of the newspaper men phoned me and asked if I had a camera. After replying in the affirmative, he told me to take a few photos of New York and bring the film down to him; the paper would then develop and print the film. This I did. When I tried to leave the newspaper office, I was detained until the prints were made. While waiting, another newspaper called to see if a spare flying saucer print could be secured. The fellow answering the phone said, “No;” and when I quite loudly stated that I had one, and held it up, I never saw anyone move so fast to “shut me up.” This newspaper had the only really good prints, and did not want any other paper to share the scoop or know that I, the photographer, was there. All the papers were trying to reach me, but without success. The prints of New York were not too good, so they took a few pictures of me with the Leica; and about midnight, after retelling the whole story in detail, having been informed not to talk to any other reporter, I was allowed to go home to bed.

The next day the story broke in the newspaper. From then on for a few days the family lived in a nightmare. The phone never stopped ringing. Everyone was calling- newspapers, radio, television, newsreels and magazines. You name it, we had it.

About 48 hours after the negatives had been taken from me, I asked for them. Inspector Foley returned then, and I still have them now. One evening a week later, while we in the tower crew were filming a television newsreel, a call was received about 10:00 p.m. from the filter station stating that another disk had been sighted. A few of the cameramen dashed upstairs to the tower with movie cameras but could see nothing.

From Keller Venus Files: The photographs, top and bottom, by August C. Roberts, are purportedly the first ever taken on the East Coast of a UFO.

When the strain got too much for me, I called a friend of my sister in Westwood, New Jersey. I wanted to spend a few days out there fishing and resting- just to get away from all the hectic times I had undergone. She told me my sister had not yet returned from Florida.

While chatting with her, I learned that she had been driving with her sons toward River Edge, and they had seen a disk a few days before we had seen it here. It was early in the evening. Suddenly her eldest son told her to look up, and there she saw an orange ball, twice as large as a silver dollar but with the darker rim moving towards New York. They saw it only about four seconds when the light suddenly blinked out. Although they looked hard and long, they did not see it anymore.

Later, while speaking to a friend of mine, he mentioned a lady who had seen a disk about 9:30 p.m., 27 July 1952. When I spoke with her, she said she just happened to be looking up when she saw this strange orange ball of light moving towards New York. I did not place too much stock in it then; but later, when another person, an auxiliary policeman, told me he had seen a large orange ball of light moving overhead as large as a silver dollar- also on the night of 27 July 1952, at about 9:30 p.m., it set me to thinking. These people do not know each other although they live five blocks apart, and yet each had seen the same thing at the same time.

On 31 July 1952, my married sister (with whom I reside) told me that she, my brother-in-law, and a friend had been driving in the vicinity of the Palisades Amusement Park when she spotted an orange ball in the sky. Jokingly, she exclaimed, “Oh, look, a flying saucer!” Was she surprised when it faded out about six seconds later in a cone-shaped manner similar to fireworks displays! This had happened about 8:45 p.m. When she returned home, at about 11:30 p.m., she called the New York Daily News to find out whether they had received any other reports. They confirmed her suspicions, stating they had had four reports from different vicinities for the same time, and all the disks had been sighted over the same area.

The following week I entered St. Mary’s Hospital in Hoboken, New Jersey, where I had to undergo an immediate operation because of a condition aggravated by staying up on the tower in the dampness and cold of all-night sessions. After my release six days later, I went away for a rest to my sister’s home in Westwood. I was told later that the Air Force had been looking for me on two different occasions. I suppose they wanted to look at the negatives, but no member of the Air Force or anyone of importance has sought me at any time since.

A few weeks later, I received an observer questionnaire which I answered as best I could and returned to them. One question, which I believe had been answered wrong, was about the changing color of the disk. At the conclusion of this testimony, I shall describe the disk as I saw it.

The next report I received was a letter from Mrs. Josephine Hetzel of Staten Island stating that she had read in her local paper, The Advance, on 6 October 1952, that three men had seen two saucers at 7:10 p.m. on the evening before.

The latest event happened while I was at our skywatch post. Our logbook records it as follows: “At approximately 20:00 hours on 14 October 1952, John Stemming, Irving Edersheim and I saw a missile fly through the sky from the northeast to the east, then to the west at a height of 1,000 to 1,500 feet. It traveled in a flat trajectory and almost passed over our post. It resembled a very bright ball resembling a tracer bullet, but was many times larger. At the time we saw the missile, a plane which we believed to be a single-motor military plane, was traveling northeast and seemed to be about one-quarter mile from the missile. The same was reported to the filter station. (Signed) Andrew J. Gisondi.”

Although at the tower that Tuesday evening, I was not upstairs at the time I was informed of it. I noted that the time was about 7:39 p.m., not 20:00 (8 p.m.), as was written in the logbook. I told Andy to make a note of it so that it could be written in the book, but he must have put down the time he wrote the item instead.

The next day the Daily News ran the following story:

“Blue Flame Still Mystery”

The Civil Aeronautics Administration yesterday still lacked an explanation of the “blue flame” that reportedly flashed over International Airport at a high speed at 7:33 p.m. Tuesday. Katherine Barry, Assistant Astronomer at Hayden Planetarium, said it probably was “the fire ball of a tremendous meteor.”

Several North Jersey communities reported seeing a “fiery white ball” passing overhead a few minutes after the phenomenon had been sighted from the airport.

On 18 October 1952, there was a skyquake over Glen Cove, Long Island, that broke windows, split sidewalks and knocked children off of their feet. It could have been a jet plane breaking through the sound barrier, but all air fields reported their planes had been accounted for. Or it could have been an experimental plane which was not listed. If you were to go back a few years, you would find that on 18 February 1948, in Stockton, Kansas, there was also a skyquake which has never been explained, but a disk was seen just before the explosion!

Now for the description of what the disk looked like to me. It was clearly circular in shape, slightly smaller than a ten-cent piece to the naked eye. Through my binoculars, however, it approximated the size of a half-dollar. Also, it had depth. About the best way to describe it is to visualize two half-dollars held together at arm’s length, turning them slightly to the edge. The rim appeared to be as thick as the edge was wide. The whole disk was flat. It appeared to be anywhere from 50 to 100 feet in diameter. (Note: A plane in the same area appears to us to be about the same size, including wingspread.)

When I first saw the disk, the rim (outside top and a small part of the inner surfaces of the rim) was a brownish color. The inner part of the disk was a bright orange color with a dot in the exact center, of the same brownish color at the rim. It was like looking at a small moon with a rim around it, and just as bright. The whole object was glowing and flickering. Through the 9x35-power binoculars, it could be seen clearly that the rim was spinning in a clockwise direction. As the disk moved, the outer rim began to change color to a reddish brown and the dot in the center changed color along with the rim, while the center became a lighter orange color. I noticed that while the rim was spinning there was less flickering. When the thing finally departed, the colors change again somewhat with the rim and dot in the center becoming a glowing red and the orange color in the center becoming a still paler orange. As it left, it turned so that the outer edge was facing us; and I could see the thickness of it very clearly. During the three to five minutes that the disk was visible, it was “standing on edge” in the sky. I only saw light on two sides, that is on one side and the rim. I never saw the opposite side of the disk for it never turned towards me.

While watching it, I had an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach that here was something everyone was searching the sky for, and I had a “box seat.” I have seen quite a few planes as a spotter, but this machine certainly beats them all. It did not make a sound, and looked powerful and deadly if it chose to be so, although it appeared to be just observing.

I did not believe the Air Force has a flying disk; and I feel they are not revealing all they know for very good reasons. If the disks do not belong to any country on the Earth, then they must come from outer space; and if they do, can you visualize what would happen if Washington suddenly announced we had visitors from outer space? It would probably cause quite an outbreak of nerves. In a few years we may learn the answer. The government may be conditioning us for the big news later on, and then the shock might not be so great. Already there is talk about putting a space platform 1,700 miles out in space as a jump-off station to reach the Moon. In time, it might materialize; but right now, the one prohibiting thing is a lack of funds for such a project. If we could accomplish this in a few short years, what is to keep the inhabitants of another planet from doing the same thing?

Many years ago, things were seen in the sky. On pages 361 and 362 in the book Altai-Himalaya, by Nicholas Roerich (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1929), the author says that while on an expedition in 1926 he saw a large oval object in the sky moving at a great speed. He spent time watching it through field glasses. If he had not seen it, why would he write about it? This is just one case, and many more have happened throughout the years. Many more cases are yet to come.

Should anyone like to see a flying saucer, just join your local Skywatch Station if your city has one. There you will have a chance to help your country, which needs help now for plane-spotting in case of an enemy attack.

Photo on left of pioneer ufologist and UFO photographic expert, August C. Roberts, from Keller Venus Files as posted with Rense Radio. Photo on right first appeared in the 4 July 1969 issue of the Allentown, Pennsylvania, Morning Call newspaper.

Reports from Thailand

Thus concludes August C. Roberts’ interesting report. Another incident of note in Dr. Stranges’ Flying Saucerama, however, took place further afield in the Amphur District of the Songkhla Province in Thailand at 10:10 a.m. on 20 June 1955, where residents in the Songkhla City suburb of Sadau witnessed a strange UFO, round in shape and white in color, that was rotating and flew from the southwest to the northeast at a great speed. The observers were able to maintain the object in view for about one minute. They reported a trail of smoke stretching behind the UFO that reached to the horizon.

A little more than one month later, on 22 July 1955, there were more UFO reports coming out of Thailand, but this time centered over a strategic tin mine. The UFO apparently was seen sailing above some scattered clouds. It was described as being “round but elongated” and traveled with the speed of a meteor. What particularly made this saucer stand out was that it made a loud noise, “like a coughing motor.” Some of the witnesses said that the UFO was somewhat similar in appearance to wide-brimmed hat which had a small crown, like a coffee cup on top, as a cupola. This was not the first time an object like this had been seen in the area. Dr. Stranges commented that, “There can hardly be serious doubt that some types of UFO are interested in the sites of our mineral resources.”

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part VI)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

Venus shines brightly in the star fields of outer space. Original artwork from Flying Saucers magazine, Amherst, Wisconsin, in Dr. Keller’s Otto Binder files.

The Outer Space Connection

In considering the many high quality UFO reports that he had compiled in his Flying Saucerama, Dr. Frank E. Stranges began to consider the possibility of an outer space connection to the phenomenon. Initially, he thought it would be difficult, at least for Americans in the late 1950s, to bring themselves to the realization that flying saucers may well be our first introduction to beings from another planet. We have to remember that the opinions expressed by the powers-that-be in government and media in 1959 were trending toward a severe criticism of ufologists in general, and the contactees, specifically. Dr. Stranges made a comparison of this situation to a state of war, “where clouds of smoke are often laid in order to hide certain activities such as troop movements, battle maneuvers, etc. In the case of the flying saucer, the United States Air Force has really overdone itself in attempting to disprove that which actually exists.”

According to Lieutenant Colonel John O’Mara, the Deputy Commander of Intelligence for the United States Air Force, throughout the last half of the decade of the 1950s, his military branch’s UFO investigative organization, Project Blue Book, was receiving over 700 flying saucer reports per week. In light of this avalanche of UFO reports, Dr. Stranges naturally wondered how long the Air Force could continue with the contradiction of denying the existence of flying saucers. Even General Douglas MacArthur had voiced sober and thought-provoking words concerning the UFO phenomenon. On 7 October 1955, the mayor of Naples, Italy, Achille Lauro, was visiting the United States and staying at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, where he had been meeting with General MacArthur earlier that day. In the afternoon, when questioned by a reporter from the New York Times about anything the prestigious Army officer may have told him about the nature of any future conflict, the Italian mayor blurted out that, “He thinks that another war will be double suicide; and that there is enough sense on both sides of the Iron Curtain to avoid it. He also believes that because of the developments of science, all countries on Earth will have to unite to survive and to make a common front against attack by people from other planets.” In addition, the mayor declared that, “In the general’s opinion, the politics of the future will be cosmic, or interplanetary.”

Regarding these alleged statements by the general, Dr. Stranges remarked, “This, in my humble opinion, is certainly a statement to read and read again, carefully considering the fact that a man such as General MacArthur would not make wild statements, thus jeopardizing his standing as a soldier respected both for his military prestige and his civilian leadership.” The doctor and UFO researcher then continued to elaborate on several encounters with anomalous objects by United States military pilots. The speed and maneuverability of the flying saucers in these cases certainly exceeded, technologically, anything that we or the Soviets had on the drawing board at that time. The only logical conclusion was that these UFOs were real, physical objects arriving at Earth from another world.

From Keller Venus Files: Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC, Ret. (1897-1988), was America’s foremost authority on UFOs during the latter half of the 1950s. Dr. Frank E. Stranges worked closely with Keyhoe during this period.

Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC, Retired

The impressiveness of the UFO reports made by the military pilots convinced Dr. Frank E. Stranges that flying saucers are not all connected to Earth-based phenomena or manufactured devices from either the United States or the competing superpower of the Soviet Union. The doctor’s assessment of the UFO situation paralleled that of Donald E. Keyhoe, a retired Marine Corps major and pilot, as well as the author of the then bestselling book, The Flying Saucer Conspiracy (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1955). Keyhoe, who in 1959 was directing the largest civilian UFO research group, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), headquartered in Washington, D.C., was claiming that there was no doubt about the truth of the existence of flying saucers. Keyhoe was critical of the United States Air Force and asserted that many startling reports of UFOs were being held from the public, largely because the military brass in the highest echelons of the Pentagon feared the spread of nationwide hysteria that would surely follow the release of such information.

Keyhoe did recognize that the UFO reports made by most United States Air Force pilots maintained a worldwide reputation for an unbiased objectivity. In his book, The Flying Saucer Conspiracy, he reports the following aerial encounters by such seasoned military aviators:

“A B-29 clocked three formations of flying objects at 5,240 m.p.h., over the Gulf of Mexico. Then a giant machine showed up on the B-29’s radar scopes. The three mysterious formations converged toward the big object and then disappeared into it. Then it raced of at 9,000 m.p.h. At Kinross, Michigan, an Air Force F-89 took off from the base to chase a UFO that had been picked up by ground radar. On their radar screens, the radar men could see the fighter’s blip merge with the unidentified blip. Then both disappeared and the F-89 never returned. To this day, no trace of that F-89 or its pilot has been found.”

From numerous reports such as those cited above, Keyhoe came to the conclusion that flying saucers are neither American nor Soviet secret weapons. After all, back in 1955 when Keyhoe’s book was published, there was no known metal that could withstand the heat created at such speeds within our atmosphere. Therefore, the retired Marine Corps pilot felt that perhaps the intelligences behind the flying saucers may be using the anti-gravity field principle as it was reported in 1955 by Ansel Talbert, the military and aviation editor of the New York Herald Tribune, and from which I compiled an extensive series of articles for Lon Strickler’s Phantoms and Monsters blogsite in 2020 and 2021. Basically, the utilization of an anti-gravity drive system as outlined by Talbert encompasses an understanding that electricity and magnetism are related to gravity in definite ways, but as yet not known, unfortunately. Or should I say, “fortunately,” as far as any extraterrestrials are concerned. Who knows what kind of havoc humans might wreak in the cosmos with anti-gravity ships facilitating the proliferation of nuclear weapons to other planets in our own solar system and beyond!

Keyhoe and other UFO investigators maintained that, “The finger of fact points in only one direction: outer space.” Based on Keyhoe’s extensive research into the reality of the flying saucers as interplanetary spaceships, Dr. Stranges signed up as one of the early members of NICAP and became a close associate of the retired Marine Corps major and the world’s then leading authority on the subject of UFOs and the conspiracy of the United States government to hide the truth about these mysterious objects.

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part VII)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

From Keller Venus Files: Cover of International Evangelism Crusade, Inc., Cold War-era, anti-communist pamphlet composed by Dr. Frank E. Stranges in 1959.

Other Concerns of Dr. Frank E. Stranges

With the establishment of the International Evangelism Crusade, Inc., headquarters at 3181 Mackall Way, Palo Alto, California, in 1959, it became clear that Dr. Frank E. Stranges’ interests were not limited to religion and ufology. He was also an ardent patriot in the struggle against communist infiltration in American society as well as curbing the rising tide of juvenile delinquency throughout the United States. In the fight against communism, Dr. Frank was able to enlist the aid of such prestigious individuals as J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Congressman Francis Eugene Walter (Democrat, Pennsylvania), Chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities during the period of 1955-1963; and Richard Arens, the Permanent Secretary and Staff Representative of the aforementioned committee during the period 1957-1960. Dr. Frank’s concern over wayward youth, however, and his suggested remedial actions, were promulgated mostly on his own initiative as an exponent of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s words of wisdom related to this matter as revealed in the pages of the Holy Bible.

Death by Strangulation: Dr. Frank E. Stranges Rebukes Communism

Dr. Frank E. Stranges firmly believed that America must take a firm and united stand against the forces that are out to destroy our system of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In a pamphlet distributed at some of the meetings of the International Evangelism Crusades, Inc., in 1959, titled by Death by Strangulation: A Report on Communism, Dr. Frank noted that, “We, as Christians, cannot leave it entirely up to the FBI, the Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C., or any other agency that is pledged to defend the security of America.

“If we love America, let us stand united against those who have struck against Christians and Jews across the world. Let us pray that God will lead and guide us all into His paths, because God’s ways are higher than ours.

“Even though many have sold themselves down the Communist drain, and their hearts betrayed America, let us hold on to the truth of God.”

The pamphlet then goes on to explain the structure, objectives and leadership of the Southern California District of the Communist Party, that his congregation might become more aware of the patterns of deception promulgated by that nefarious group. Ever alert to his surroundings, since his arrival in the Greater Los Angeles area, Dr. Frank believed that the Communist Party of the United States had been marshalling its forces in California for a new offensive in the Golden State. According to the evangelist, “By authorization from the Communist Party’s national headquarters, located in New York, California’s Communists since the Spring of 1957 have been implementing a major change in their organizational structure, as well as certain changes in strategy.” In the late 1950s, California was clearly the state with the most potential for economic growth, a magnet for migration. “Obviously,” mused Dr. Frank, “the Communist Party is alert to the potentials of the booming state. California’s constantly increasing population, its burgeoning industries ranging from strategic aircraft and missile production to the building trades, its unique multi-million-dollar entertainment center and its mounting influence in the national political scene, unfortunately have not only attracted the average loyal American but also the nation’s predatory Communist minority.”

From FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Dr. Frank learned that this Communist minority habitually forces its efforts on key areas where the successful infiltration of Communists would yield a maximum return in terms of influence and power. The Communist Party had at its command in California the second largest component of its membership. In 1959, only New York outranked California in Communist Party strength, as well as in total population. Apparently, the West Coast Communist conspiracy was noted for its extreme vitality, which went on largely unquenched even during the so-called “witch hunts” conducted by the Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, whose term ran from 1947 until his death in 1957.

Political cartoonist Art Young of the socialist magazine, The Masses (New York City, New York) created this wanted poster for the August 1921 edition of Good Morning magazine, Vol. 3, No. 10, New York City, New York.

Celestial Utopianism vs. Communism

As the emerging extraterrestrial contactee movement, largely centered in Southern California, signaled an impelling desire by many to understand the utopian societies that allegedly exist on other planets, the FBI and other intelligence agencies in the United States were taking a more than casual interest in infiltrating flying saucer clubs and UFO groups to keep this influence in check, or perhaps even root it out totally. These efforts are extensively documented in my second book in the Venus Rising series, The Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus (Terra Alta, West Virginia: Headline Books, 2017), available on amazon.com, while supplies last.

Dr. Frank wanted his congregation, and the public at large, to recognize that although there were some similarities in the type of communalism initiated by the Apostles and practiced by the early Christian church with the tenets of communism, at least as described by Karl Marx in his famous Communist Manifesto (1848), there was a significant difference in the motivational factor behind its implementation. Unlike the type of communism imposed by a totalitarian regime, such as that found in Russia during the peak of the Cold War, the Apostles urged the members of the primitive Christian church to initiate a program of sharing one with another in communities formed by “voluntary association.” In Acts 2:44-45 (KJV), the physician and gospel writer Luke described this process as follows:

Acts 2

44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;

45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all [men], as every man had need.

According to Dr. Frank, the Christians from many lands throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean were coming together in Jerusalem to celebrate the first Pentecost. In preparation for this great event, where the church would be established by the power of the Holy Ghost as exercised by the Apostolic Council there in Jerusalem, the local believers were asked to open up their homes for the pilgrim seekers of truth, sharing of all that they had with those in need of assistance. “Those advanced beings of other worlds,” noted the Southern California evangelist, “long ago, and of their own free will, established just such a caring and sharing economic system among themselves.” He added that, “We have much to learn from these exalted, angelic beings, who countless millennia ago passed through the trials and tribulations now facing humankind.”

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part VIII)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

Dr. Frank E. Stranges, who grew up on tough urban streets, spoke from experience in warning young people across the country about the dangers in gang affiliations. He urged parents to pay attention to their children and love them enough to inspire them to seek a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Working with Wayward Youth

Besides concerning himself with flying saucers manned by extraterrestrial visitors and the international communist conspiracy, Dr. Frank E. Stranges played an important role in the Southern California society of the late 1950s by his active participation in the seemingly never-ending struggle against juvenile delinquency. Dr. Frank firmly believed that our strongest weapon in fighting this scourge among contemporary youth was the Bible, the Word of God for humankind in all ages. Dr. Frank sadly noted that many of the youth of his day were living in a world where faith, love, discipline, sympathy and understanding were sorely absent. Against the emerging background of juvenile delinquency, an overall increase in crime throughout the nation and the threat of world conflict, the evangelist felt Sunday school instruction might be augmented on many levels conducive to promoting a great knowledge of the Bible as the Word of God and its immense power to change lives for the better.

In elaborating on this idea, Dr. Frank E. Stranges declared, “There is immense and vital power in the Word of God. But knowledge is needed to release that power. It is the role of the Sunday school to disseminate knowledge of the basic truths upon which our civilization rests. It is through the Sunday school that the dynamic gospel which Christ brought to the world must be made accessible to new generations. And it must be done in such a way that with it comes true understanding of that gospel.

“We must assess the moral climate of today with a most critical eye and ascertain the degree to which it is responsible for the present scourges of crime, delinquency and subversion. If we are to change that climate- if the rampant materialism that is at the base of so many of today’s evils is to be forced into retreat- we must look to every spiritual weapon at our command. Certainly, the Sunday school is such a weapon.”¹⁷

For Dr. Frank, the importance of Ephesians 6:12 (KJV) would frequently come to mind when considering questions pertaining to the wayward youth: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Apparently, one of the major causes for the gaining of unrighteous worldly footholds among our young people was parents failing in their responsibilities toward their children. On the night of Wednesday, 1 April 1959, Dr. Frank E. Stranges was speaking on the subject of “Juvenile Delinquency” at a youth rally of the Immanuel Gospel Temple at 1050 South Hill Street in Los Angeles, California. Having just completed a nationwide tour investigating this topic and speaking on it in many of America’s major cities, the evangelist reported that, “The consensus, particularly of police, schools and churches, is that the parents are shrugging off their duties. We are placing it back squarely where it belongs.”¹⁸

The reporter covering Dr. Frank’s oration, Gene Cowles of the Los Angeles Examiner, did explain that the evangelist was formerly affiliated with a detective agency in Boston, Massachusetts, where he saw first-hand the growing cases of neglect for their children evidenced by urban parents. Cowles reported that Dr. Frank would continue speaking on this issue and others associated with juvenile delinquency at the Immanuel Gospel Temple on the nights of Saturday, 4 April, and Sunday, 5 April, at 7:30. At 7:30 p.m. on Friday, 3 April 1959, however, Dr. Frank E. Stranges was scheduled to speak on the, “Mysteries of the Flying Saucers” at the Temple, in a family night presentation.

From Dr. Frank E. Stranges’ sermon notes, these are the principle causes of juvenile delinquency:

1. Broken homes

2. Too-busy parents

3. Lax police departments

4. Too-lenient judges

5. Unscrupulous lawyers

6. Slum areas

7. Too-crowded, understaffed schools

And from those same notes, these are some of ways Dr. Frank E. Stranges suggested as to how parents could help their children:

1. Never aggravate your child discussing religion.

2. Never blast them out because they do not attend your church.

3. Never embarrass your son or daughter in public or private concerning your church.

4. Never condemn them by quoting condemning scriptures at them every time you see them.

5. Always live Jesus Christ before them.

6. Speak kindly toward them and entreat them with love.

7. When discussing religion, lift up Jesus Christ at all times and glorify His Holy Name.

8. Live at home, with the same spiritual fervor as you display when you are in church.

9. Pray much, not for display, but to be drawn closer to the Lord Jesus Christ.

10. Read your Bible daily.

Clearly, the independent evangelist was pointing out that institutionalized religions had less to offer than the children coming into a personal relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That would go a long way toward reducing and even eliminating juvenile delinquency, as well as putting lost souls on the right track in finding the solution to a plethora of other problems.

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part IX)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

Elizabeth Klarer (1910-1994) of Natal, South Africa

Dr. Frank E. Stranges, after reading about the South African contactee Elizabeth Klarer’s encounters with Venusians, became convinced that the friendly extraterrestrials were deploying their flying saucers from underground bases around the world, and even from the back side of the Moon.

“Elizabeth Klarer’s Flying Saucer”

Dr. Frank E. Stranges, having seriously investigated sundry forms of aerial phenomena since 1945 while looking for any possible connection between these mysterious apparitions of the sky and the manifestation of angels, believed that he had finally found what he was looking for after picking up the June 1957 issue of Flying Saucers from Other Worlds (Amherst, Wisconsin: Palmer Publications), which was premiering that month and available for purchase at his local newsstand. Throughout the mid-1950s, South Africa had become the scene of quite a number of flying saucer sightings. Elizabeth Klarer of the Mooi River area of Natal in that country had become critical to the world of saucer investigations in that she had secured a spectacular series of flying saucer photographs, that Raymond Palmer published in his new Flying Saucers from Other Worlds magazine. Klarer had snapped the seven pictures of a flying saucer on 17 July 1955 as it was skimming over the peaks of the Drakensberg Mountain Range.

From Keller Venus Files: First and best photo of seven taken by Elizabeth Klarer of the flying saucer passing over the Drakensberg Range in South Africa on 17 July 1955. This photo of the object was enlarged five times.

After reading the article, titled “Elizabeth Klarer’s Flying Saucer,”¹⁹ Dr. Frank became convinced that it was a true account, that the flying saucer occupants were extraterrestrial, and lastly, based on the behavior demonstrated by these ufonauts, that they were inherently “angelic” in their nature. Previously, the evangelist had some doubts about some of the contactees’ accounts insofar as they seemed to be heavily laced with Eastern mysticism and Theosophy. To Dr. Frank, the material science checked out in cases like those of George Adamski or Truman Bethurum; but because of the underlying metaphysical themes in the messages these contactees presented, he could not immediately sign on to what they were preaching where some divergence with the Christian gospel, as he understood it, was evident.

Trance mediums summon an ectoplasmic entity. Dr. Frank E. Stranges opined that such practices should be avoided as they open one up to demonic influences. Photo source: https://fineartamerica.com/shop/posters/seance.

In a 1964 conversation with his friend, UFO research associate and contactee authority, Gabriel Green, the director of the then Los Angeles, California, headquartered Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America, during their production of a motion picture based on Dr. Frank E. Stranges and Robert L. Park’s Strange Sightings from Outer Space (Los Angeles, California: Cosmic Star, Inc., 1964), Dr. Frank E. Stranges explained that he believed Elizabeth Klarer’s account because, “When South Africans Ann Grevler and Philipp Human also claimed contact with extraterrestrial beings in the 1950s, Elizabeth was outspoken in her denunciations of them, based on their use of trance-mediumship in communicating with the aliens. Elizabeth Klarer insisted that the space people would never stoop to such methods and I agree. The Bible likewise condemns such occult practices as they could open up the participant to demonic influences.”

Drakensberg Mountain Range as Saucer Base

The article began with a flying saucer landing that allegedly took place in the Mooi River area in Natal, South Africa, at the foot of the Drakensberg Range, on 7 April 1956, where the occupants of the craft supposedly established communication with Elizabeth Klarer. Her story was fervently backed up and vouched for by Edgar Sievers of Pretoria, South Africa, the author of the then best-selling non-fiction book, Flying Saucers über Sudafrika (Pretoria, South Africa: Sagittarius Verlag, 1955), and the leading UFO investigator on the African continent during the mid-to-late 1950s. According to Sievers, Klarer witnessed her first interplanetary spaceship in this same area of South Africa when she was just seven years old. She told the UFO book author that, “The object was a great orange-red wheel as large as a football (as if it were held at arm’s length). It moved slowly across the sky over the rolling foothills of the Drakensberg.” From Klarer’s flying saucer revelations, Sievers assumed that the extraterrestrials had been monitoring Klarer quite closely since her youth, waiting for her to grow up so that they could return in their spacecraft and impart an important message to her. It seems that the ufonauts had foreknowledge that Klarer would become a woman of prominence and great influence in the burgeoning country of South Africa.

Esteemed Background

For a woman who grew up in a rural African setting, Elizabeth Klarer (nee Woollatt), was well educated in the Western European tradition. Having matriculated from St. Anne's Diocesan College in Pietermaritzburg, she moved to Florence, Italy, to study art and music. Thereafter she completed a four-year diploma in meteorology at Girton College, Cambridge, and was taught by her first husband, William Stafford Phillips, whom she married in 1932, to fly a Tiger Moth light aircraft.

In 1932, Elizabeth and the two other Woollatt sisters, along with Maureen Taylor, formed the Connington polo team and drew a match against the Durban ladies’ team, which is seen as the first officially recorded ladies’ match in South Africa. During a 1937 flight from Durban to Baragwanath in a Leopard Moth aircraft, she and her husband William Stafford Phillips reportedly saw a saucer that approached, coasted along, and then quickly zipped away. During World War II, she was employed as a meteorologist in the Royal Air Force Intelligence Branch at the De Havilland Experimental Station in Hatfield in the British Isles, where her husband was stationed as a pilot and officer of the Royal Air Force. In 1943, she moved back to South Africa, where she and Stafford amicably divorced. They had one child together, Marilyn Phillips, born in 1933. Nevertheless, the capable and pioneering Elizabeth was well received upon her return to South Africa. In 1946, she married Paul Klarer, an engineer, and gave birth to her second child three years later, a son, whom they named David Klarer. Their marriage ended in the mid-fifties largely due to all of the undue attention focused on Elizabeth and her claims about flying saucers and encounters with alien beings.²⁰

Preliminary Contact

The site of Klarer’s first full contact with the extraterrestrials on 7 April 1956, on her family’s estate, was a familiar spot for the alien visitors, who had apparently attempted a preliminary contact with the young lady back on 27 December 1954. On that momentous day, at around 10 a.m., the young Elizabeth was alone of her family estate’s hilltop when a saucer came gliding down. In recalling this event during an interview with Sievers, the reporter from Pretoria, she said that, “When I saw the flash in the southern sky, but nothing more, there was plenty of fair-weather cumulus about; then, what I thought was a white bird caught my eye. Looking at it very hard, I realized it was no bird. The sun glinted on the craft as it glided down to hover a few feet above the northern slope.”

Klarer continued, “The craft was so close to me I could see clearly the face of the pilot through the porthole. Yet, through uncertainty and fright, I instinctively stepped back or recoiled from the strangeness of it all; but my gaze remained fixed in a fascinated stare upon the face of the pilot, the most handsome man I have ever seen. He was blonde. His eyes gave me the impression at that distance of being light grey. He smiled at me to reassure, but I backed away. Then the craft slowly rose and moved away in a southernly direction, until it disappeared in the distance. I stood rooted on the spot. I was left with my remorse and my reproaches for being so stupid.

“For fifteen long months I reproached myself, but always hoping that possibly I would have another chance. I continually went out in all weather and dreadful storms. But I have a family of two dependent on me, so their demands took first place, and I gradually became more patient.”

Sievers, in discussing Klarer’s overall condition, both emotionally and physically at the time of this preliminary encounter, with the writer from Flying Saucers from Other Worlds, noted that emotionally she did not appear to be suffering from any “psychicisms.” He also described her as a “gifted pianist and music teacher with studies accomplished in Italy and England with a wide range of intellectual interests ranging from history to astronomy. An enthusiastic traveler, a lover of nature in general and of horses in particular, attractive Elizabeth Klarer has both her feet on the ground, no less than any other woman who has to look after her family.” Insofar as her physical aspect was concerned, Sievers remarked that, “She is a normal, healthy woman.” The only aspect of this case that seemed somewhat out of the ordinary, in Sievers’ analysis, was that, “Klarer did nothing but think of this saucer, hoping and longing that it would return.”

Many of the great equestrians have noted a sort of telepathic connection existing between horse and rider. The South African reporter believed that Elizabeth Klarer’s closeness to her championship horses may have served to augment her extrasensory abilities, thus making her a prime candidate for contact by the Venusians or other extraterrestrials.

Analysis of Klarer’s Motives

Of course, Sievers is not a certified psychologist. Nevertheless, here is his further analysis of Klarer’s motivations with regard to her cursory and preliminary encounter with the saucer and its pilot:

“For all those who have noticed already that they are able to establish with their dogs or their horses an inner contact all of its own, the following point will be a familiar and sensible one; and it is this point which most definitely enters the picture from here on.

“There are modes of awareness between living beings which are trans-sensorial, i.e., which take place beyond the usual boundaries of sensual and sensorial control. Where a rider and a horse are at one in this way, the horse acts prompted by the mere intentions of its human friend. Mrs. Klarer, too, is gifted to a point where she establishes immediate contact with horses. Where that particular awareness is spanned from man-to-man to such a degree that it becomes a somewhat conscious link, we have usually been talking of telepathy and thought transference.”

Some contactees, like the late George Adamski (1891-1965) of Vista, California, could summon flying saucers just by thinking about them. Artwork source: Independent newspaper, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Other Contactees Considered

Sievers, the premiere South African flying saucer investigator, considered this telepathic aspect with regard to other contact cases between humans and the ufonauts:

“Not only from George Adamski do we know that this mode of awareness comes into play, too, where relations to spacemen are concerned. There are many people in this world already who do have sensations of an indefinable kind whenever a saucer is nearby. Stephen Darbishire, in Coniston, England, acted on such promptings. Another youth in our country, Ernest van Zyl, aged 17 then, did so and, following the hunch, had found a saucer; and likewise, is Elizabeth Klarer affected when there is ‘something in the air.’ At least on two occasions, she took friends along with her when prompted by those sensations, and the saucers were actually seen.

“It is an unbroken period of almost four years, in which Adamski has been talking to all who were ready to listen with discerning ear and an attentive mind, a period in which he has not hidden himself, as an imposter would have done, nor faded from public memory, as could have been expected of a hoaxer duly found out. His words have not only been ringing true, they necessarily were and are the truth. Because only truth could have withstood such a barrage of suspicion, scorn, mockery, disbelief, ridicule and slander from every corner of the world converging on Mt. Palomar in print, sound waves and by mind force.

“While Elizabeth Klarer has mustered the courage to come forward and henceforth to stand this very same test of acid publicity, there are many who know her personally and who will vouchsafe for her sincerity, as well as her truthfulness and her integrity. Like Adamski, she will likewise stand and fall with the veracity of her claims and the absolute truth in her spoken word.

“This personal angle is so all-important,” asserted Sievers, “because this encounter with a man from space is without direct evidence. Nor is it very likely that, had she direct proof and evidence, any of those who either cannot or else do not want to believe would let themselves be convinced.

“The restraint of the spacemen in their appearances is proof enough that they do not intend to interfere with our inner development forcibly; rather is all this being wisely measured to such a pace as will give everybody the chance to get accustomed to the thought and the fact that human beings are living on nearby planets.

“Mrs. Klarer had taken her daughter Marilyn, who is a medical student, and son David, aged seven, to Durban, for a few days by the sea, when on Friday, 6 April 1956, she experienced a compelling feeling to return to the farm and to her familiar hilltop; and so back they all went to the homestead.

“Early next morning, Saturday, 7 April, that particular feeling having persisted, Elizabeth Klarer slipped out and after a brisk walk, reached the hilltop, about 2 and a half miles away.”

Elizabeth Klarer Provides Greater Details

From this point, Elizabeth Klarer takes up her account again:

“On reaching the top of the southern slope, I saw the scout ship resting on the ground near the eastern slope of the dip. The rising Sun had not topped the slope, so the craft was in the shadow. My immediate reaction was not to hesitate as I had done the first time, but to run as fast as I could. I felt as though I had wings on my feet, rushing down that very rough slope, straight to the tall blond man standing near the craft. It was the most natural thing for me to do, because I felt that I had known him all my life.

“I stretched out both my hands to him, and he took them, saying, ‘You were not afraid this time.’ He helped me step into the craft. The automatic door closed and he gently sat me down on a soft circular bench, where I was able to regain my breath. What helped me more than anything was the wonderful, invigorating freshness of the air in the cabin.²¹

“An awful doubt assailed me when I saw the other pilot sitting at the controls. He was dark and stocky. So, without thinking, I asked the tall spaceman, ‘Oh, you are not a Russian, are you?’ He smiled and answered, ‘I am not from any place on this planet that you call Earth. I am from Venus.’

“The interior of the craft was simple and beautiful to my mind. None of the mass of instruments and wires over dashboard and walls as in modern aircraft, but simple rows of push buttons on some kind of desk. None of the stuffy smell of fuel, it was all clean and efficient. There was a tempered humming sound, soothing and pleasant, that emanated from the floor of the craft. It gave me a sense of power and security.

“The porthole covers were open. There were three sets of four. I looked out of one. I could see for miles; but it was far too hazy and I was unable to see immediately below because the hull of the craft was in the way. I did not think at first to look through the lens until the Venusian gently drew my attention to it!

“The wonderful sight of rolling green country was breathtaking. I could now see clearly for miles, even the line of blue sea in the distance.

The Mooi River running through rolling hills in the beautiful countryside encompassing Elizabeth Klarer’s estate in what is now Rosetta, KwaZulu-Natal Province, in the Republic of South Africa. The coordinates for Flying Saucer Hill are 29°20′41″S 29°51′35″E.

“The tall spaceman and his companion were wearing dark-brownish suits, the trousers narrowing down to the ankles, the shirt sleeves narrowing to the wrists and a high neckline. They were close-fitting garments, but light and comfortable, made of a material not unlike a coarse shiny nylon.

“I was given refreshing water to drink, and a delicious red apple and other fruit, similar to bananas. They are primarily vegetarians. No wonder that they live and enjoy health so much longer than we do, with their diet and breathing such wonderful air. Yes, the tall, soft-spoken Venusian told me that the air I had been enjoying so much in the craft was Venusian air! He told me that there is a higher oxygen content in the Venusian atmosphere, that is, in the lowest strata of the Venusian atmosphere that is out of reach of the instruments used by scientists on Earth. The upper atmospheric envelope is poisonous and hot. He told me there is a great deal of water on Venus, and many rugged, high and snow-capped mountains.

“The houses on Venus are built in a circular pattern. Some are made of a special material that permits light to come through but does not expose the occupants to the view of anyone on the outside. I said that I would love to go to Venus and to the Moon. Our Moon is not a dead world. Space people are based there. How kind, civilized and cultured they are!

“They are wise and understanding. They are watching us closely now that man is moving into space, and we have stated that the Moon is our first target. This will concern them vitally. Man will take war into space.”

The Venusian told Elizabeth Klarer that he feared that “Man will take war into space.” Poster above is an advertisement for a popular 1959 Japanese sci-fi film, Battle in Outer Space, directed by Ishiro Honda.

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part X)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

A Venusian’s Situation Report on Earth’s Progress, or Lack of

The evangelist Dr. Frank E. Stranges believed that the messages of the Venusians to the South African contactee Elizabeth Klarer were extremely important for all of the inhabitants of the Earth, at least insofar as he asserted from his pulpit that we of this planet have arrived at the point where we desperately need a higher vantage point in order to understand the full context of our own lives and the whole pageant of human history. Perhaps, he mused, the Venusians were serving as God’s agents on our planet to provide us with this new perspective, for it seemed that very few were catching on to the signs of the end times popping up all around us. And maybe the appearance of the flying saucers in our skies might serve to awaken the human race to the perils of rushing headlong into the nuclear arms race, and thus eventually bringing about the militarization of outer space. With the threat of nuclear annihilation facing all in the midst of the Cold War then taking place between the United States and the Soviet Union in the waning years of the 1950s, it is easy to see why Dr. Stranges put so much stock in the words of warning issued by the Venusian to Elizabeth Klarer.

In her own words, Klarer informed Sievers, the South African reporter and ufologist, that, “The tall Venusian, who spoke perfect English, told me how for a limited period, he had lived and studied on Earth, traveling to various cities to see for himself how mankind lived and behaved. He was sad to see the mode of existence, precarious and always with the threat of war. Aggressive dominating nations would continue to rise to power, nations that are still uncivilized. The power of brute force still was rampant in the world. That was the tragedy, he told me; therefore, how can the space people land amongst us?”

What to expect in the Latter Days: Chinese military forces on parade in Bejing, China, in 2021. The Venusian foresaw nations rising out of barbarism and chaos to become new aggressive powers on the world stage, achieving parity with the United States and Russia, and perhaps surpassing the two super powers of the Cold War Era.

Onboard the Scout Ship

Of her visit aboard the scout ship, Elizabeth Klarer continued, “There was plenty of room to walk around in the cabin, but my whole attention was help by the personality of the spaceman. We talked about music, real and beautiful music, not about the primitive noise of the beatniks that is so popular throughout the world. The space people are highly sensitive to sounds. Music is a realm in which they all excel. Music is part of their life. To most Earth people it is an education that takes many years to accomplish, if not a lifetime, and still many never understand music.

“I felt no movement in the craft at all, beyond the gentle humming. I was told they used natural forces to propel the saucer. How wonderful to harness these forces that the universe is made of. That is why eventually man must have a complete understanding of nature and the universe. Until he does, he is tied to limited mentality and capacities.

“The Venusian, who was sitting next to me as we conversed, said, ‘I must now return you to the hill where I found you. Our time is up. Also, David needs you. He is ill.’ With sadness at leaving, mingled with anxiety to return to see my son, we descended to land with a gentle touchdown on the hill.

“Both spacemen were very kind, gentle and considerate. The younger, shorter one had an olive skin; and the older, taller Venusian had a fair, golden-hued one. The metal of the craft was smooth polished to touch, like a mirror. The automatic door opened and the tall Venusian led me through. Sadly, I waved goodbye, as I backed away from the craft and then stood to watch them take off. Without a sound, she (the ship) rose slowly to hover for a moment. The rays from the setting Sun were flashing in rainbow colors on her sides, then gathering speed glided away into the southern sky.”

Of course, Elizabeth Klarer hurried home to check on her son. There she discovered that David was suffering from a severe sore throat, which she was able to attend to.

Dr. Frank E. Stranges was struck by many of the similarities of Elizabeth Klarer’s account with those of the contactees he had spoken with in Southern California. He could guess at the feelings which had accompanied the South African woman’s experiences, filling her heart for days and weeks thereafter, being so compelled to relay the important messages of the Venusians to the world at large.

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part XI)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

By the summer of 1956, Klarer found herself uneasy, and had secluded herself on her family’s estate. She somehow felt that the saucer and its occupants were nearby, and that her friends from Venus were standing ready to visit her again. She dare not leave the area, lest she miss any subsequent encounters.

It was on the morning of 17 July 1956, at about 11 a.m., when all of the Klarer clan was settling down for a nice cup of tea. Elizabeth, however, felt the urge to excuse herself from the table and to go outside and get some fresh air. On her way out the door, she snatched the box camera of her daughter.

Elizabeth had the sneaking suspicion that her extraterrestrial friends might be showing up again. She then climbed up the side of a hill not too far from the homestead; and while watching a storm brewing in the south with massive thunderclouds forming over the Drakensberg range, out from the lowest hanging clouds dipped the familiar flying saucer, the same type of scout ship she had taken a ride in and developed a romantic crush over the handsome pilot, who went by the name of Akon.

Of the saucer that came into Klarer’s view, however, the South African journalist Sievers reported that, “It flew all around her, showing its paces and doing various maneuvers. It was coming and going in and out of the clouds, generally offering her the opportunity to use up the film, which she did, ‘shooting away’ at the craft. Of seven photographs taken, two or three were particularly good, sharp, defined and convincing, while the rest were blurred.

“Negatives and object have been examined and studied. Nobody could find anything that would arouse suspicions. The family of Major Flowers, Elizabeth’s brother-in-law, is in the position to testify that she took the photographs all by herself. No, there was no one to ‘help her throw the hub-cap into the air,’ as it immediately has been advanced, of course.

“Apart from Mrs. Klarer being of too frail a stature to be able to handle hub-caps and a box camera at the same time, we have despite long-lasting effort, yet to discover that particular make of hub-cap which she could possibly have used. There simply is none that would come even half as near to the design of the saucer as it appears on the negative. The craft is of the type about 50 to 60 feet in diameter, with a flat and wide dome, not with the half-sphere dome as seen on Adamski’s and (Cedric) Allingham’s photographs. Incidentally, saucers and a carrier ship have been seen over Major Flowers’ estate on more than one occasion. The hope is that these developments will not yet have come to their end.”

Later on, in her autobiographical book, Beyond the Light Barrier (Cape Town, South Africa: New Vision, 1980), Klarer enlightened us on much more that she had learned from Akon, in particular, during sundry other encounters with extraterrestrials that took place between 1954 and 1963. Akon, while piloting a Venusian scout ship, was himself actually from a planet called Meton in the Alpha-Proxima-Centauri star system, some four light years distant from our own solar system. It seems that Meton and Venus are both member planets in a vast Galactic Confederation of Light.

There was a very special rendezvous that Elizabeth Klarer had with Akon sometime in early April of 1958, one that would set her story apart from the UFO stories that were standard in the 1950s. For an entire day, Akon wooed Elizabeth on the high plateau of Cathkin Peak in the Natal, where he supposedly presented her with a silver ring which enhanced their telepathic connection. Their love was consummated and a child was conceived. Of this cosmic tryst, Elizabeth Klarer declared, “I surrendered in ecstasy to the magic of his love making, our bodies merging in magnetic union as the divine essence of our spirits became one.”

Don’t leave Earth without it. Elizabeth Klarer insisted that Akon bring her new 1959 MG Roadster to the planet Meton, where she went to deliver their hybrid baby.

And after a traditional terrestrial pregnancy on Earth, Akon returned to visit her, while she and her new MG car were transported in 1959 to his home planet of Meton, where she delivered a son, who was given the name Ayling. He stayed behind on Meton to be properly educated, while Elizabeth reluctantly came home. Apparently, Meton's planetary vibrations began to negatively affect her heart, and she was consequently not permitted to return there, instead receiving follow-up visits from Akon and Ayling at her residence in South Africa. The whole trip to Meton, her delivery and return trip to Earth, required less than four months. However, she reported remaining on Meton for a period equivalent to nine Earth years. This was due to the space phenomenon of time dilation when exceeding the light barrier in travel between solar systems.

Elizabeth Klarer with artist’s rendition of the extraterrestrial Akon produced for her book, Beyond the Light Barrier, in 1980.

Adamski’s Visit

In his world tour of 1959, the preeminent Southern California contactee George Adamski stopped by in South Africa to visit with Elizabeth Klarer at her home. No one knows exactly what they talked about or what evidence for her contacts that Klarer showed Adamski, but the Polish-American came away believing that Klarer’s experiences with extraterrestrials were genuine. And since Adamski’s encounters were largely on the physical plane, Dr. Frank E. Stranges was more apt to believe them as well; and hence he extended the same acceptance toward the initial assertions of Elizabeth Klarer. All the information about the alien baby were still kept under wraps, although I have a sneaking suspicion that Adamski was made aware of this delicate situation.

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part XII)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

Dr. Frank E. Stranges, after a period of careful study and meditation, came to believe that a literal paradise realm, known as Agartha, exists inside the Earth. According to ancient Buddhist and Hindu legends, its capital city is called Shamballah, which from Sanskrit translates to “Land of the Worthy Ones” or “Land of the Living Gods.” The few who have visited Agartha maintain that it is a rugged, mountainous terrain coursed with white, raging waters and peppered with volcanoes. For this reason, Agartha has also been precautionary labeled as a “kingdom forbidden to mortals.”

Flying Saucer “Flap” Activities Considered

Dr. Frank E. Stranges, upon considering the intensification of flying saucer activity over extended periods of time and at certain geographical hot spots around the globe, came to the realization that it would be logistically inconvenient for the extraterrestrials to be dispatching a wide variety of spacecraft to this Earth or in the vicinity of the Earth on a near daily basis. Rather, it would be reasonable to assume that they would establish bases that were, for the most part cloaked or hidden from view: under the sea, subterranean, on the back side of the Moon, islands cloaked with invisibility, etc., or perhaps a combination of all these things.

It was the case of South Africa’s contactee Elizabeth Klarer that first sparked Dr. Stranges to think along these lines. The preponderance of flying saucers over the Drakensberg range on an almost daily basis induced him to speculate that perhaps there was a saucer base nearby, maybe even situated under the mountain. He remembered the scene from the science fiction classic film, This Island Earth (Universal-International, Los Angeles, California, 1955), where the extraterrestrials from the planet Metaluna worked out of a secret base in the Blue Ridge range of North Carolina, where they concealed their saucer in the heart of a mountain. In the late 1950s, there were many such hot spots, like that in the Drakensberg, for intense flying saucer activity, or “flaps,” as they were called by ufologists: the Popocatépetl volcano 43 miles southeast of Mexico City, the Mojave Desert in Southern California, the skies over Lake Erie, the Bermuda Triangle, the region encompassing the Alps extending over several countries in Europe, Mt. Etna in Sicily, the hinterlands of Queensland, Australia, and the saucer nests found there, the grasslands of Alberta and the attendant crop circles, etc.

From classic sci-fi movie, This Island Earth (1955): Flying saucer taking off from underground base in the Blue Ridge mountains.

After careful readings of the Bible, the Book of Enoch, William Reed’s Phantom of the Poles (New York City: Walter S. Rockey Company, 1906) and Marshall B. Gardner’s A Journey to the Earth’s Interior (Aurora, Illinois: Self-published, 1920), Dr. Stranges arrived at the conclusion that, “This planet Earth, as it stands now, is a shell about 800 miles thick. There are two major openings into this planet where the North and South Poles are supposed to be. The opening are approximately 1,400 miles across and 4,200 miles in circumference. Before the Great Flood, during the days of Noah, the Earth was 6/7ths land and only 1.7^th water. In 2^nd Esdras of the Apocrypha, we read that the ‘canopy was frozen.’ The frozen canopy above the atmosphere above the entire world cooled off this planet and made it like walking and existing in an air-conditioned atmosphere. See also Genesis 1:7. The tropical plants, trees, animals, birds and fish were very plentiful around the area at the poles, as well as at the equator.”

If anyone doubted this, Dr. Stranges would point out that, according to a United States government report, as presented by Admiral Richard Byrd, in special exploration flights over both of the poles, he came across all of the aforementioned tropical conditions along with an abundance of plant and animal life.

The minister further explained this situation: “There is no such place as the North Pole, at least insofar as the ‘frozen wasteland’ that the powers-that-be would have you believe. Adam and Eve, you see, at the very beginning, disobeyed God. God drove them out of the Garden of Eden. At the place that was considered the entrance of the Garden of Eden, our Lord placed a Cherubim and a flaming sword. The one primary purpose of this was to keep Adam and Eve out (Genesis 2:8). Nothing is stated in the scriptures, in the Book of Genesis, about keeping either the Holy or Evil Angels out of the Garden of Eden.”

The minister pointed out that Satan and his angels were not cast from the heavenly realm to this Earth, but into it. Dr. Stranges asserted, “Check your Bible on this point and you will bear me out. Before Adam was created, Satan was cast down from the heavenlies. There are many references concerning Satan and his angels still being inside this planet, among them are: Rev. 9:1-2, Rev. 9:11, Rev. 11:7, Rev. 11:8 and Rev. 20:1-3. Of course, the realm of the Inner Earth areas will be vacated of all evil by the Almighty in order to restore Earth to its original, perfect state. God’s people will not only occupy the surface, but also the interior of this planet.”

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part XIII)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

Dr. Frank E. Stranges on God’s Creation Process

In a 1964 sermon regarding the varied inhabitants of Agartha, encompassing the realms of the Inner Earth, the prominent Southern California evangelist Dr. Frank E. Stranges commented somewhat on the process of the Creation: “Due to the fact that God, in His Supreme Mind and Being, could speak the Word, thus forming the universe, God could then form the world in His Mind, first.” In regard to how this applied to individual human beings, Dr. Frank continued, “Before you can create anything on paper, the thought must exist in your mind. You take the thought from your mind, write it on paper, then begin to construct that which your mind has give you in the first place.

“The idea mut first begin in the mind. God, the Infinite Holy Mind, formed the universe, formed the stars, formed the planets. In His scheme of things, He formed everything that is good. Everything God ever placed His hand to do was good. Because of this fact, that God is the Master Creator, the Grand Architect, as well as the Master Sculptor of all time, He could take this planet Earth and cause it to move through its proper motion around the Sun. The Sun, being the orb at the center, has a family of twelve planets in all revolving around it, not only in one, but some of them in two directions.”²²

Where the Inner Earth Fits Into this Scheme

Insofar as the Earth is spinning while it goes around the Sun, Dr. Frank commented that, “Now, for that reason, because the Earth is constantly turning and revolving, there is no spot inside the Earth that can be called ‘bottom.’ Therefore, the great deep space 7,000 miles across is called the ‘Bottomless Pit.’ This is where Satan shall be chained. It has no bottom because it is continually moving.

“For the past 6,000 years,” continued the evangelist, “Satan has been the king over the angels in the center of this planet. He is still considered the Prince of the Powers of the Air. In Revelation 19:11, he is the god of the present world, of this planet. The fallen angels are motivated by the same force and authority as Satan. They are possessed with evil. The present world conditions testify to this statement as being factual!

“There are several Bible verses that clearly indicate the fact of these angels being in the Earth: Revelation 5:3 declares that, ‘….no man in Heaven, no man in Earth, neither under the Earth, was able to open the book…., neither to look therein.’ Also, Revelation 5:13 goes on to proclaim, ‘Every creature in Heaven, on Earth and under the Earth were saying, ‘Glory be unto the power of the Lamb.’’ And in Philippians 2:11, it states that, ‘At Jesus’ name, every knee shall bow…. of angels in Heaven, of men on Earth and of angels under the Earth.’”

Dr. Frank pointed out additional scriptures underlying this point. These being:

Philippians 3:10: “Every knee shall bow, of celestial, terrestrial and subterranean…. that is, those under the Earth.”

II Peter 2:4: “God spared not his angels that sinned…. but in their case reserved them unto the judgment.”

In Jude 6 we read, “the evil angels…. God hath reserved unto (age-lasting) chains under the Earth for judgments unto the Great Day.”

Matthew 12:40: “After Jesus was made alive, He went to preach to the spirits in prison in the heart of the Earth.”

And in Ephesians 4:9, it is revealed that before Jesus ascended, “He descended first…. into the lower parts of the Earth,” where He preached to the spirits there.”

On the Nature of Angels

At various evangelical revival meetings conducted by Dr. Frank, he would speak about the nature of angels. First and foremost, it is important for the Christian to know that angels cannot die. Also, their knowledge is much greater than that of any human being. In the 1964 sermon, Dr. Frank E. Stranges, made a reference to Valiant Thor, when he declared that, “This one that I spoke with at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., who claimed to be a member of an unfallen race, could also have been an angelic being. Angels are real!”

The Southern California minister also pointed out that, “Angels are not subject to death. They also have the ability to appear and disappear at will. Even Genesis Chapter 6 will tell you how they are able to materialize and become as human beings.” Until the Day of the Lord’s Judgment, however, the evangelist pointed out that the fallen angels are likewise endowed with the same powers as the angels who kept their first estate.

Enoch’s Visit to the Inner Earth

Dr. Frank urged his congregation to check out the Book of Enoch, wherein chapters 17 to 65, the ancient author of that unrecognized scripture describes the beauty and grandeur of the Earth’s interior. He tells about the awesome depths of the valleys and the tremendous heights of the mountains. The old prophet relates accounts where some of the trees are taller than any he has ever seen on the surface, where the rivers are much wider, the colors of the flowers are more vivid, and there are numerous metals and precious stones to be found that no human being has ever seen anywhere topside on this world.

“In Revelation Chapter 21:20-21,” notes the evangelist, “You will read of these things, of precious stones that have never been viewed in such abundance by any human being- stones such as jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, etc. There are also twelve great gates made of pearl. These are a reality. As one counted among God’s people, I am looking for the day that we will come to an appreciation of all of His blessings; because as we do, they will become a part of us, a reality.”

Some like the ancient prophet Enoch (3138, B.C.E.-2773, B.C.E., translated to Heaven) have visited the Inner World and returned to tell us about it. Artwork source: https://www.geni.com/people/Enoch-Idris/6000000006376093098.

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part XIV)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

Earth’s Water Canopy: Ancient and Future

Dr. Frank E. Stranges, being an advocate for creationism over evolution, believed that the Book of Genesis was a literal account of God’s formation of the Earth and all the life that He placed upon it, to grow and multiply, thereby each form fulfilling the measure of its existence within the context of its own species. Because the evangelist believed every word in that first book of the Bible, this meant that he accepted its account of a “water canopy” that once existed over our planet, before it fell down into the oceans at the time of the Great Flood, greatly expanding them in the process.

The Southern California evangelist explained the “water canopy,” as found in the Book of Genesis, in the following manner:

“The Bible tells us plainly, there was a great ring of water or ice canopy all around the atmosphere. In Genesis 1:7, we read that, ‘God made the firmament…. the air, or the atmosphere, and divided the waters on Earth from the firmament, or the ring of ice (water) above the firmament (atmosphere). God called the firmament Heaven, and God called the dry land Earth.’

“Job tells us that the sky was a beautiful blue at all times- no storms, cyclones, tidal waves, not even clouds. For 1,650 years, it never rained. A mist went up and watered the face of the ground in Genesis 2:6. The great ice canopy melted and fell and the first rainbow appeared in Genesis 9:13. Before the flood, the light from the Sun was as even and as perfect as God made it and the climate was cool, and the temperature the same all over this planet. Think of it, at that time, 1/7^th of the Earth was covered with water.

“Today,” continued the evangelist, “75 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. The flood raised the sea level three miles. The present land surface is only about 65 million square miles. When the ice-canopy will be restored to where it was, there will be ‘no more sea’ (Revelation 21:1).”

As Dr. Frank E. Stranges explained it, “The New Earth will have an area of three miles below the present sea level, and then that will give us 200 million square miles of dry land on the exterior, the outer portion of this planet Earth. The canopy is going to be restored (Revelation 12:13). Because of the dense canopy of water, a person will be able to look directly at the Sun. The Bible tells us in Revelation 6:12-13 that, ‘The Moon will appear as blood and the stars of the heavens will cease to shine. The very sky will roll up like a scroll.’ Isaiah 34 tells us, ‘The stars shall fade;’ and Revelation 6:14 reveals that, ‘The present heavens and Earth with the stars will depart as a scroll all rolled up together.’

Dr. Stranges also pointed out that the Apostle Peter said, “I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth;” and the Apostle John declared, “I see a New Earth.” The evangelist also emphasized that in Ecclesiastes we read, “The Earth abides forever.” Insofar as Dr. Stranges was concerned, “Christ is the LORD, and being all powerful, He created the world and the entire universe. He laid the foundation of the Earth, not to ever be removed. He covered the Earth with water as a garment. And as we read in Psalms 104:5, ‘The water stood above the mountains.’

“Waterspouts are acting at the command of God. He is going to command them to spring up from the ocean, rivers and streams to join together in the sky again, forming a curtain or canopy over the planet. Read Psalms 42:7, which explain that, ‘The deep was called by the above and the ocean below, and the noise of thy waterspouts, all thy waves and billows are gone over me.’ And in Revelation 18:17, ‘For in just the time of one-hour, great riches shall come to naught. Every shipmaster and every sailor (all companies), and as many as trade by sea, as many as stood afar off, cried unto the heavens when they saw the smoke and the fog, the steam and the vapor. They cast dust on their heads and they wailed, for in one hour they were made desolate.’ In one-hour the waterspouts shall remove the oceans from their present place and restore the canopy to its former place.

“The Great Flood did not flow in the center of the Earth. The waters were frozen as they fell. The canopy, at that particular time, became cold, about 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The flood waters froze to a depth of three miles around the openings of the North and South Poles. You will find that in Job 38:10, Proverbs 8:30 and Psalms 104:9.”

Dr. Stranges on the Polar Regions

Dr. Frank E. Stranges wanted to know, “How in this great, wide world can man tell us that there is a North and a South Pole if God, through Job, tells us that, ‘He stretched out the North over the empty place (Job 26:7)?’ that is, the Lord stretched out the shell of the Earth over the North. According to the compass, charts and maps, the Admiral Byrd expedition kept traveling further than North, even more so than was indicated on the maps.”

Dr. Frank E. Stranges believed that the American Admiral Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957), as navigator, and Floyd Bennett, as pilot, actually flew over the opening of the Inner Earth at the North Pole during their United States Navy-sponsored exploration flight of 9 May 1926, and as recorded in Byrd’s diary. Photo source: www.dailymotion.com.

Dr. Stranges, when commenting on the admiral’s expedition, noted that, “In reality, they traveled in and around the opening of the Inner Earth; and because of the force of gravity, they did not fall off. There are seven secret cities located in the Inner Earth.

“Beginning at 70 to 75 degrees latitude, the Earth begins to curve in. The many explorers have sailed straight north until they have gone around the 800-mile curve and not one of them knew that they were on the inside of the Earth, and one of these was Admiral Richard Byrd. Except for a strong, dusty warm wind, it was mild and pleasant. There were icebergs from the interior and floating past them. After 82 degrees latitude is reached, why is the compass needle always agitated, restless and balky? Around the snow are of the North and South Poles, much of the snow is red, green, pink and purple. Why? Could it be that pollen from the millions of acres of colored flowers has caused the snow to likewise be multicolored? Bear in mind that when the visible kingdom of God is finally established on this Earth, all things will be brought to light. This is all part of the Great Kingdom of God.”

More important than all this information about the Inner Earth, in Dr. Frank’s estimation, was whether or not you receive the Kingdom of God in your heart. This is the first and foremost consideration. Once you have done that, you will be able to see with spiritual eyes, actually viewing the physical Kingdom of God. “Daniel 2:44 and Revelation 5:10 verify this statement,” exclaimed the evangelist.²³

It was Dr. Frank E. Strangest fondest wish that the light of love of God would assist each and every one of us to come to the realization that now is the time to accept that kingdom and be prepared for the changes that are soon to take place on this planet.

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part XV)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

On the Lecture Circuit

In the latter half of the 1950s and the early 1960s, there was a lot of confusion about UFOs among the populace at large. To illustrate this point, in one of his lectures promoting his 1959 Flying Saucerama book, given in 1960, Dr. Frank E. Stranges quoted the definition of “flying saucer” as given in the American Everyday Dictionary, Jess Stern, editor (New York City, New York: Random House, 1955), as “Any of the various shaped planes or missiles allegedly flying at high speeds and altitudes.” The reluctance of the “powers-that-be” to attribute any extraterrestrial or supernatural point of origin to the flying saucers was apparent, and seemed to be gaining steam through the perpetuation of the skeptics’ point of view in the mass media, even so far as affecting the process of defining the term “flying saucer” or “UFO.”

There seemed to be a reluctance in the scientific community to attribute anything extraterrestrial or supernatural to the appearance of flying saucers in our skies, at least so far as most scientists in the United States academic establishment were concerned. While the first Soviet satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched in October 1957, followed by our own American satellite, Explorer 1, at the end of 1958, there is no doubt that these scientific marvels would never have been possible without having had the nightmare technology of guided missiles in both of these militarily powerful countries to build on. In any event, the secrecy surrounding the development of the guided missiles, together with the ensuing step of launching satellites, helped to propagate the widespread popular conviction that true manned spaceflight was just around the corner. And surely, many reasoned, we must be going into space for more than catching a fleeting glimpse at the twinkling stars. Perhaps this race for outer space was inspired by a sure knowledge that there are other intelligent beings out there, just waiting for our arrival to join the galactic club of space-faring civilizations. After all, that was the message being delivered to us all by the flying saucer contactees.

Dr. Stranges, in the course of giving his Flying Saucerama lectures and book promotion, had been well aware of the efforts of spokespeople from the scientific establishment to temper the enthusiasm for an extraterrestrial hypothesis for flying saucers and to explain away UFOs, well before the Sputnik or Explorer satellites had even been launched, as issued in statements like the following from Jonathan Norton Leonard, the science editor of Time magazine, in his 1954 best-selling book, Flight Into Space: The Facts, Fancy and Philosophies (New York City, New York: Random House), page 46: “Each (guided missile) test range or development center is a source of rumors that spread like ripples, gradually losing with distance any content of accuracy that they may have contained. The flying-saucer hallucination may be attributed, in part, to the public’s conviction that all sorts of strange objects are flying through the sky. In this belief the public may be right. It is likely that some missiles are already flying fast enough to shine in the dark. They may have colored exhausts, and they may fly very differently from conventional aircraft.”

Dr. Frank E. Stranges informed his audience, “Whether or not the military is willing to admit their presence, ‘flying saucers’ are with us, and have been for many, many years. Astute men of authority have gone on record as being among those in the world that have admitted the presence and reality of the unidentified flying objects. Men such as Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, who said, ‘Flying saucers are real. Too many good men have seen them, men that do not have hallucinations.’”

The Reverend Doctor Stranges also quoted Henry J. Taylor (1902-1984), a respected American author, economist, radio broadcaster and former United States ambassador to Switzerland. Taylor had gained wide recognition as a European foreign correspondent for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain during World War II. Due to his objective reporting, the American public was apt to pay attention to his opinions on controversial subjects arising later during the 1950s and 1960s. According to Dr. Stranges, Taylor asserted to him, regarding the flying saucer phenomenon, that, “I was actually stumped by the conflicting reports of eye-witnesses, until I found that there are two mysteries in our skies, instead of one. One mystery involves our development of secret weapons; but the other is not revealed by an ‘Earthly interpretation.’”

From the British Isles, Air Chief Marshall Lord Dowding, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Air Force, has declared, “I am convinced that these objects do exist. They are not manufactured by any nation of this Earth.”

In 1960, however, Dr. Stranges pointed out that, “The United States Air Force, to this date, has denied the very existence of flying saucers. Therefore, the term ‘unidentified flying objects’ has been introduced and carried through. They evidently are not too certain as the whys and wherefores; or are they?”

On Research of Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC, Retired

The evangelist, an active member and Southern California advocate for the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), headquartered in Washington D.C., noted that this organization’s director, Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC, Retired, as a result of his and his NICAP’s rigorous investigations into the UFO enigma, probably provided the public with more accurate UFO information than anyone else or any other group, civilian or government, on the planet. Keyhoe has come to the conclusion that flying discs actually change colors in the sky and states, “During day-time periods, scores of metallic-looking discs have been seen to change color during maneuvers. One typical report, in 1950, described an encounter near Lewisburg, West Virginia. Two round, silver discs had approached the city, then swung into a tight, fast circle. As the maneuvers began, both turned orange-red. When they straightened, reduced speed, the orange quickly faded and the discs resumed their normal, silvery color.”

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part XVI)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

Airliner Buzzed by Saucer over South Bend, Indiana

As one of the early members of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), Dr. Frank E. Stranges was privy to insider information about the most fantastic UFO cases personally investigated by the organization’s director, Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC, Retired. Directly from Keyhoe, the evangelist got the full story on the amazing aerial UFO encounter of a stocky ex-Navy pilot, with ten years post-military flying experience with Trans-World Airways (TWA), four-stripe Captain Robert Adickes, at 8:25 p.m., CST, on Thursday, 27 April 1950 in the clear, crisp night skies over South Bend, Indiana. Adickes was in the left-hand seat of a TWA DC-3 that night; and on the right sat another four-stripe captain, Robert F. Manning, the first officer on a regularly scheduled nonstop flight from New York to Chicago.²⁴ “The DC-3, Flight 117,” later wrote Dr. Stranges, “was cruising at 2,000 feet when a strange red light below and behind the airliner suddenly caught Manning’s eye. Puzzled, Manning watched it close in. The light was steadily growing in size.”

TWA Captains Robert Adickes (L) and Robert F. Manning (R)

Two veteran, four-stripe captain TWA airline pilots, Robert Adickes and Robert F. Manning reported a flying saucer buzzing their DC-3 aircraft at about 20,000 feet over South Bend, Indiana, on 27 April 1950. Artist’s rendition of the UFO appears below. Source of all photos and artwork pertaining to the TWA Flight 117, DC-3 UFO encounter from the August 1950 issue of True Magazine (New York City, New York: Fawcett Publications).

Dr. Stranges continued with his rendition of the unusual UFO report: “It was now an orange-red color, like a blob of hot metal sweeping through the night sky. Craning his neck, Manning looked down on a spherical shape which glowed brightly on top, its lower half in shadow. To Adickes, it looked like a huge red wheel rolling down a road. He banked toward it; but the disc suddenly slid away, keeping the same distance. He tried again, but with the same results. Calling the hostess, Gloria Hinshaw, Adickes told her to alert the passengers, to make sure he had plenty of witnesses.”

TWA hostess Gloria Hinshaw directed the passengers’ attention to the starboard side, where they could catch a good view of the red-light pulsating flying saucer.

Dr. Frank E. Stranges was impressed with the reliability report on the pilots of Flight 117 obtained from the offices of TWA. It described them as, “Quiet, conservative, serious and careful.” He also learned that nobody in the TWA offices had any doubts that the object reported by Adickes and Manning was a real flying saucer, exactly as the two had reported it. The hostess Hinshaw, in describing the UFO, noted that, “It looked like a big red wheel rolling along. On top, it looked like it was on fire.” And other witnesses were found among the passengers. Eleven of them were interviewed by Major Donald E. Keyhoe himself over long distance phone calls. The first one interviewed by the retired Marine Corps officer was S. N. Miller, the manager of a jewelry company in St. Paul, Minnesota. He had watched the saucer for several minutes, getting a very good look at it. “The thing was the color of a neon sign, jut a big red disc. I used to laugh at saucer stories,” confided Miller, adding, “but I won’t anymore.”

When Dr. Stranges inquired of his friend Keyhoe about the identity of other passengers who had reported the UFO, the retired major noted that some of them were very prominent leaders in their respective spheres of influence; among them C. H. Jenkins and D. C. Bourland, engineers with the Boeing Aircraft Company; E. J. Fitzgerald, the vice president of a metal equipment corporation in Chicago, Illinois; and several officials of the International Harvester Company in Warrenville, Illinois, who were returning home from a business meeting, among others of lesser renown, mostly vacationers. They all admitted to seeing the glowing flying saucer pacing the plane. Keyhoe also filled Dr. Stranges in on some of the details concerning other reports of the fiery red appearance of the flying saucers. There was one incident in Greenville, South Carolina, where on the night of 13 May 1952, astronomers had witnessed four glowing amber-colored UFOs flying in a straight line across the eastern sky. And then, a little more than one month later, on 19 June 1952, military intelligence reports coming in from Goose Bay Air Force Base in Newfoundland, Canada, affirmed that, “A glowing red disc approached the (landing) field at night.”

Captain Adickes’ Assessment

Capt. Robert Adickes, the pilot, and his First Officer Robert Manning had the object in sight for six or seven minutes as it overtook their plane at about 2,000 feet and cruised along a parallel course. When Keyhoe spoke with him, he noticed that Adickes was a cautious man and reluctant to say that he saw a "flying saucer." To him it was simply an “unidentified object” or a “guided missile.” Regardless of the confidence placed in him by fellow TWA employees, he probably felt that calling the UFO a “flying saucer” might put his career at the airline in jeopardy.

“I had just had my dinner and was wide awake,” said Adickes, “when this object flew alongside. It was definitely round, with no irregular features at all, and about 10 to 20 per cent as thick as it was round. It was very smooth and streamlined, and glowed evenly with a bright red color as if it were heated stainless steel. It was so bright it gave off a light. It left no vapor, no flame. It appeared to fly on edge, like a wheel going down a highway. I went back to show the passengers. Most of them saw it but they couldn't see it as clearly as we [pilot and co-pilot] did because cabin lights were on and their eyes weren't adjusted to darkness. I called South Bend air traffic control and asked if they had any record of unusual craft in the vicinity. They didn't.”

Adickes banked north in an effort to get a closer look. “It appeared to be controlled by repulse radar,” he said, adding that, “As I'd turn toward it, it would veer away, keeping the same distance. When I turned directly toward it, it took off at a speed judged to be about 400 m.p.h., twice my speed. It went down to 1,500 feet and streaked out of sight northward over South Bend.”

Adickes had talked with other pilots who claimed to have seen strange sky phenomena before he saw the object over South Bend. Hearing about the static they received from the higher ups at TWA and other airlines, as well as from Air Force brass poking their nose around the airports, he was careful to say that he did not see anything that could not be explained by physics, radar, or known aerodynamic principles. He examined it as well as he could and even opened the cockpit window on the right side so that he wasn't looking through glass. Because there was nothing to compare it with, he hesitated to estimate its size or distance, but compares it in size and color with an orange as it would be seen from about 20 feet away.

Dr. Frank’s Conclusions

In considering these cases, Dr. Frank E. Stranges concluded, “There is absolutely no question whatever concerning the actual existence of these flying objects. There is certainly something in the skies above us and someone is responsible for them being there. It has been stated time and time again that these objects ‘must’ be under intelligent control. Pilot Adickes’ estimation of the radar-ranging capabilities of this object are proof of that. However, I doubt that it was a guided missile from this Earth, however, insofar as our United States military would never launch such a weapon in the vicinity of a civilian aircraft under any circumstances.

“One of the greatest ‘thorns in the flesh’ to many Bible scholars, ministers, etc., is the statement of ‘Life on Other Planets.’ It seems very strange that who are ‘finite beings’ continually attempt to force God into the test-tube of our ‘2x4 human understanding and reasoning.’ We must never lose sight of the one prime fact that ‘God is the Creator’ while we are His creation.

“During the past few years, I have met men and women from all walks of life. Many of these people are continually looking for truth. They are seeking for the very truths that will cause a better life to come up over the far horizon. Nevertheless, if we can but place our trust in God and lay hold of the blessings and provisions that are made for us through the Lord Jesus Christ, we might make the discovery that these great revelations are within the grasp of every honest believer.”²⁵

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part XVII)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

Peter Kor was the scientific consultant for Raymond Palmer’s classic Flying Saucers magazine (Amherst, Wisconsin), and a good friend of Dr. Frank E. Stranges. Like many ufologists of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Kor was looking for a “middle ground” between the true believers and adamant skeptics of the reality of the elusive flying saucers.

Great Battle in Ufology

To Dr. Frank E. Stranges and many others in the UFO community back in 1959, it had become apparent that a great battle had been raging between the true believers in flying saucers, such as manifested in the likes of Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC, Retired, and the membership of his UFO research organization, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), vs. a small but persistent group of skeptics mostly centered in the scientific establishment enthroned in academia. Believers like Keyhoe were quick to point out that many UFO reports and physical traces prove that alien intelligences of some sort are in our midst, visiting our world in their spacecraft that we Earthlings generally refer to as “flying saucers.” On the other hand, the skeptics maintained that even the best reports could be explained in non-sensational ways and that the physical traces are too mundane to support any conclusion of alien intervention.

Peter Kor,²⁶ a science writer for some of Raymond Palmer’s magazines Flying Saucers (Amherst, Wisconsin) and Fate (Chicago, Illinois),²⁷ opined that, “What both sides seem to have lost sight of is that something extraordinary has been happening with respect to this entire phenomenon. Before proceeding further in this matter, it must be determined whether flying saucers exist or not.” Certainly, the believers participating in this debate back in the late 1950s were greatly outnumbering those in the ranks of the skeptics. Nevertheless, it seemed that the skeptics had gotten much the better of the argument, pinpointing inconsistencies in the extraterrestrial hypothesis and drawing attention to the discrepancy between the countless “encounters” with flying saucers and the lack of definitive evidence for the same. Overall, in about 90 percent of the UFO cases investigated by the skeptics, they seem to have done a far more thorough and better job, i.e., they were able to demonstrate how seemingly solid cases for the UFO could be demolished or called into question by diligent detective work and vigorous analysis. The remaining ten percent in the “unidentified” category could then aptly be dismissed for the simple “lack of sufficient information.”

This trend was disturbing to Dr. Frank E. Stranges. Being a member of NICAP since its inception and a friend of Major Donald E. Keyhoe, the evangelist had a vested interest in counting himself a “true believer.” Over time, however, he came to view the response of some of his fellow believers as “almost pitiful.” Dr. Stranges regularly communicated with Raymond Palmer and the staff at Flying Saucers magazine, keeping them posted on his own investigations and appearances on the lecture circuit around the country in promoting his then most recent book, Flying Saucerama (New York City, New York: Vantage Press, 1959). Dr. Stranges was aware that Peter Kor was a friend of both the prominent Southern California contactee George Adamski and the renowned Arizona astro-archaeologist Dr. George Hunt Williamson; and that Kor was the one responsible for bringing these two together, in the first place, for a lecture on flying saucers at the Masonic Temple in Cleveland, Ohio, back in the early 1950s, before Adamski and Williamson’s alleged encounter with the so-called Venusian cosmonaut Orthon outside of Desert Center, California, on 20 November 1952. Dr. Stranges wondered how Kor could stray so far from being an aficionado of Adamski and Williamson to apparently enlisting in the army of skeptics.

Therefore, Dr. Stranges, resident in Southern California, in a long-distance telephone conversation with Kor at his home in Northeast Ohio, inquired of this seeming change of opinion and received the following answer:

“They (the believers) merely reassert their faith and accuse the skeptics of bias or claim that they are in league with the government, establishment, or the devil, depending on their belief system.” Kor added that, “Not only haven’t they refuted the arguments of their opponents, but they have failed to grow intellectually. They have failed to grasp the implications of their belief and activity in the face of logic and evidence to the contrary.”

“Then you have switched sides and are now backing up the skeptics?” asked Dr. Stranges of Kor, an atomic scientist who once worked at Livermore Labs in California.

“Oh, not at all,” said Kor, further explaining that, “Whereas believers have suffered from a lack of rigor, skeptics have displayed a marked lack of vision. For although they have correctly concluded that flying saucers, as such, do not exist, they have not even begun to deal with the implications of the conclusion. To wit: If flying saucers do not exist, what are the causes, functions and possible consequences of the saucer claims and of the belief system those claims have created and nourished? Being a man of the cloth, Dr. Stranges, I am sure you can understand where I am going with this.”

Nature and Significance of the Saucer Mystery

In Peter Kor’s assessment of the phenomenon, neither the believers nor the skeptics grasped the true nature and significance of the flying saucer mystery. There was a definite failure on both sides of “thinking outside the box.” “The reason,” noted Kor, “is that both sides have shared the same basic framework of explanation. As that framework began to be proved inadequate, the skeptics thought the job was done and believers resorted to name calling and mysticism.” In pondering Kor’s analysis, Dr. Frank E. Stranges and other ufologists were coming to the conclusion that a new level of conceptualization of the flying saucers was needed in order to restart the process of resolving this issue. Dr. Stranges confided in Kor and Palmer that he was willing to temporarily set aside his emphasis on a purely extraterrestrial hypothesis in order to return to a more basic approach leading to an overall solution. Ufologists Palmer, the editor of Flying Saucers magazine, and Dr. Frank E. Stranges, the evangelist, theologian and private investigator, found themselves in agreement with Kor, the physicist, and his premise that a solution to the UFO enigma could be found through the “three-fold process of demonstration, revelation and comprehension.”

Demonstration Mode

The demonstration mode of solution is proof through direct observation. This may come in many forms. A flying saucer might land in a public place, being witnessed by thousands of people, perhaps even being photographed or filmed. Perhaps government officials might even display the remains of a crashed disc, along with its pilot and other occupants. A contactee might turn up with an artifact that he or she brought back from a flying saucer or some kind of message that could be shown to be of a true alien origin. Maybe the United States or some foreign power will conduct a public test of an advanced aerospace vehicle, demonstrating how its flight characteristics and other capabilities played a major part in producing a plethora of flying saucer sightings. There might even be a laboratory where scientists are conducting experiments in inter-dimensionality, whereby the existence of a previously unseen realm, and lair for the flying saucers, has been revealed.

Peter Kor, when considering these various forms that the solution may take, astutely remarked that, “The observations that serve as the basis for the demonstration must satisfy the following requirements: First, the observations must be consensual. The observers must agree about what is observed, regardless of their beliefs.²⁸ Second, the observations must be repeatable. What is observed must be available to the public at large, not to merely a few claimants during a one-time or otherwise restricted observation. Third, the observations must be substantial. What is observed must be sufficient to justify the nature of the solution claimed.”

Of course, to illustrate this last requirement, the mere claim by authorities that messages, photographs or devices displayed represent the activity of extraterrestrials would not be sufficient. “In such a case,” noted Kor, the issue would not be the existence of messages, photographs or devices. The issue would be the nature of such items; and it is that nature that would have to be demonstrated.”

I think of the ending of H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine (New York City, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1895), where the time traveler, after visiting the far future, brings back to his own time and place strange flowers growing out of season and shows them to a group of scientists, explaining that it is his proof of having visited another time, but without showing them his invention or demonstrating how it works. The strange flowers did raise a lot of questions in the group, but most, apart from his closest friend, thought he was delusional. While he previously made a small model of his time machine disappear, those present simply dismissed it as a parlor trick.

Clearly then, the appeal of this kind of solution is its simplicity; demonstration is its own proof. One need only witness the demonstration to know the solution. The researchers of the UFO phenomenon concern themselves with field investigations and public relations (PR), on behalf of the organizations they represent. Their investigations are designed to find definitive, physical evidence, or to provide actual clues for establishing contact with the flying saucer occupants. The PR is also aimed at gaining public support for further inquiries that might lead to protests at pressuring the government to come forth with the definitive evidence that most of the believers are convinced that it possesses. For Peter Kor, the physicist, “The demonstration type of saucer solution assumes that flying saucers are what they appear from reports to be- extraordinary machines or phenomena. However,” he interjected, “if flying saucers do not exist, demonstration is impossible and the search for such a solution will be fruitless, as it has been for all of these years!”

Revelation Mode

Peter Kor, in working with serious researchers of the flying saucer enigma with veteran science and science fiction publisher, Raymond A. Palmer from Amherst Wisconsin, noted that once the investigator had inevitably given up on the demonstration approach in searching for a solution to this matter, the odds were good that he or she would resort to the revelation mode. “Basically,” stated Kor, “revelation substitutes intuition and conviction for reason and demonstration. Whereas the advocate of demonstration pursues facts and fragments, the seeker of revelation looks for signs and meanings.”

Of course, the underlying premise in the revelation attempt at a saucer solution is the assumption that flying saucers exist in some form that is not directly accessible to humankind. In cases where revelation is employed in seeking for answers, some mediator, such as an astral spirit or seer, i.e., a human being with an accelerated and/or altered consciousness, would be necessary to reveal that which is ordinally hidden from view, or occulted. Kor opined that, “Attempts to solve the saucer mystery by revelation might involve experiments in extrasensory perception (ESP), hypnosis, trance mediumship, hallucinogenic drugs, automatic art or writing, ritual magic or even intense religious experiences. Unfortunately, these methods cannot result in a bona fide solution. They produce changes in personality, not truths about reality. They are not geared to satisfying objective tests, but to meeting subjective needs. Those ‘researchers’ who pursue the revelation modus operandi may find a new identity, but they will not resolve the saucer mystery.”

Dr. Frank E. Stranges, being a minister of the gospel and familiar with religious experiences and manifestations common to the Pentecostal traditions in the Assembly of God Church in the United States, upon speaking with Peter Kor, came to the realization that there was a high degree of subjectivity in the revelation mode and that any framing of the flying saucer enigma in the context of this modality would require more than a personal testimony to convince any larger number of people of the veracity of the phenomenon, or its spiritual significance for humankind.

Comprehension Mode

The atomic physicist Peter Kor now comes to the so-called “trump card” in the deck of saucer solutions, the comprehension mode. “Not only don’t the great majority of ‘researchers’ understand the nature and significance of this modus operandi, but few of them would be able to execute it if they did understand.

“Basically,” Kor explained, “comprehension is a proof by rational conceptualization. Comprehension is necessary whenever a happening or situation is not explainable in terms of immediate happenings or appearances. In such cases, observation must be augmented by conceptualization so as to bring the phenomena and facts involved within the range of predictability.

“Comprehension is a form of demonstration, whereas demonstration provides proof by direct observation, comprehension produces proof via indirect observation. To wit: Evidence leads to conceptualization which produces a new explanation that is then tested against future observations.”

As Peter Kor promulgated these three modes whereby the seeker of the flying saucer solution might pursue her or his quest, the Reverend Doctor Frank E. Stranges had reached a critical point in his career as a ufologist. It was time for a reassessment of his belief structure and a closer examination of those flying saucer and occupant cases that sparked his interest in the phenomenon.

God’s Celestial Ambassador:

The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges (Part XVIII)

By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising book series, available on amazon.com, while supplies last

In contemplating the establishment of a local UFO group in the Greater Los Angeles, California, area, Dr. Frank E. Stranges felt a certain “scientific decorum” would need to be maintained in order to create some semblance of credibility with the public at large.

Setting Up a UFO Research Group

Peter Kor, in countless articles in the paranormal publications edited by Raymond A. Palmer, firmly asserted that any comprehension of the saucer situation depended on the recognition of the following truths:

1. The entire saucer mystery and the movement it has spawned are based solely on unsubstantiated claims.

2. Not all claims are equal.

3. The patterns in the evidence are more important than the details.

Dr. Frank E. Stranges, in his contemplation of starting his own UFO investigations group in Southern California, believed that adherence to these tenets by the membership would at least secure some degree of credibility for any organization that he would establish and move forward with.

Unsubstantiated Claims

For the rational researcher of unidentified aerial objects and associated phenomena, her or his principal task would be to account for the claims themselves and not for what such claims allegedly involve. What this means is that any focus on the “objects,” “humanoids,” or even “phenomena” should be assiduously avoided. The researcher that succumbs to this error is making an assumption for something that has clearly yet to be proved. Making such an assumption insinuates that what is claimed to exist actually does.

Unequal Claims

Physicist Peter Kor pointed out a unique paradox regarding the inequality of saucer claims, to wit:

“While most ‘researchers’ would agree with the statement that ‘Not all claims are equal,’ they would not base their agreement on the correct standard. They would say that the best reports are the ones that are the most sure- such as cases with many witnesses, trained observers, instrument detection, etc. Yet these are the very cases that are the least extraordinary. The most substantiated reports are the least significant in content; and the claims that are the most significant in content are the least substantiated. The best cases vis-à-vis the nature and importance of the saucer mystery are the ones with the most extraordinary content, not the ones with the most substantiation.”

What Kor is saying here is that ‘researchers,’ so-called, have missed a crucial point due largely to their preoccupation with the term “UFO” to describe what is “observed.” Literally, a UFO could be a light, shape or object that cannot be identified on the basis of an on-the-spot observation or after-the-fact information. However, the lack of identification is not proof that the thing observed is in any way extraordinary. In other words, the witness might not have observed accurately; or, the observation might have taken place in such a way or under such conditions as to mask the very characteristics that would have made identification easier.

Yes, in the ufology community, even today, we as ufologists have all come to the conclusion that the very term “UFO” is quite an ambiguous one. It distinguishes between those “objects” that can conveniently be explained as conventional or “natural” as opposed to those that simply cannot be explained in any sense whatsoever. However, it does nothing to distinguish between those “objects” that might turn out not to be extraordinary as opposed to those that really are.

Throughout the decade of the 1950s and into the early 1960s, the historical ufologist would have to admit that those UFO cases with the most extraordinary and significant content would be those purported to have taken place at the level of close encounters of the third kind, by the experiencers that have come to be known as the contactees. Peter Kor, in those instances where he was researching such cases, preferred to use the term “flying saucers” as a reference to the “probes” and “ships” as described by the contactees themselves, thus to distinguish these particular objects from the more mundane UFOs popping up so frequently in the more ambiguous reports. Whereas the eyes of those reporting UFOs generally could have tricked in so many ways, those who encounter flying saucers and/or their occupants would be considered to be too intimately involved in the experience, at that time largely landings and friendly contacts with mostly human-looking alien beings. These contactees, involved in so intense a contact, would most likely not be uncertain or hesitant to testify as to the reality of the phenomena they were experiencing, i.e., less likely to make innocent errors. “Thus,” in the estimation of Peter Kor, “a comprehension of the saucer situation rides on an explanation of the claims of visitation.”

Evidential Patterns

Also important to Peter Kor were the patterns in the evidence for UFO and alleged alien encounters. He even felt that these patterns assumed a greater importance than the details in these cases. Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, most saucer investigators spent the majority of their time cataloging the specific features of particular sightings and encounters. Apart from Keyhoe’s NICAP, little if any effort was being made to divine the patterns that such features defined. Dr. Frank E. Stranges, being an admirer and friend of the retired Marine Corps Major Donald E. Keyhoe, felt that Kor was absolutely correct about this. If he was going to establish a credible NICAP chapter in Southern California, or even his own national or international UFO group, he would have to make sure that he and those under his direction avoided the tendency to merely catalog sightings and saucer events, i.e., simply mimicking “scientific procedure.”

Kor explained it thusly to the readers of his privately published newsletter, distributed exclusively to those in his “inner circle:”

“He (or she, the ufologist) has visions of scientists examining specimens, conducting experiments and writing technical reports that detail the anatomy of what is being studied. Therefore, the ‘researcher’ feels compelled to produce reams of data about every sighting or encounter he (or she) investigates. Reports are filled with such information as the size, shape, color, altitude and velocity of the objects seen; the configurations of the stars and planets at the time of the encounter; and the features, noises and behavior of any creatures that might have been involved. Just as the scientist reveals more of the nature of what he (or she) is studying with examination and experiment, so does the ‘researcher’ believe that each detail gleaned from a claimed encounter is inexorably building a picture of the aliens he is pursuing.”

Members of MUFON, if all of this sounds familiar to you, read on, for Kor continues, “Unfortunately, for the ‘researcher,’ the analogy is fallacious. Not only doesn’t the ‘researcher’ have a specimen to examine, but he cannot even prove that the aliens or extraordinary phenomena that he (or she) is supposedly investigating actually exist!”

Assessment of the Situation

Dr. Frank E. Stranges had a great estimation for the truly scientific approach of such luminaries in the field of ufology as Peter Kor, Major Donald E. Keyhoe, and later Dr. Jacques Vallee, the computer expert from France, and Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the astronomer from Northwestern University outside of Chicago, Illinois, who was serving as the Air Force consultant on UFO investigations at Project Blue Book. These were gentlemen truly “thinking outside the box” when it came to UFO investigations, looking for discernable patterns in all the sightings and encounters, and not just jotting down the countless observations of “lights in the sky.”

These ufologists were among the early ones to notice that the various details unearthed from the countless UFO reports largely negated one another. For instance, in every claim that involved significant features that had been previously reported, there were scores of other claims that reported features that were drastically different. The only way to create a consistent picture of what was allegedly being encountered could only be accomplished by arbitrarily endorsing some claims while rejecting others. Frankly, there was no intellectual honest in such an approach; and as far as “science” goes, it was totally bereft of any semblance of it. Looking back in the history of UFO research, a good example of such a negligent approach might be found in the University of Colorado at Boulder physicist Dr. Eduard U. Condon’s famous and so-called Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (Boston, Massachusetts: E. P. Dutton, 1969), a.k.a. the Condon Report, produced with tax dollars, I might add.

Kor explained his thoughts on this matter, thusly:

“Preoccupation with the specific features of the saucer claims not only gives those claims a false sense of tangibility, but obscures the general patterns in the evidence on which a comprehension of the saucer situation depends. For example, to focus on the ‘structure’ and ‘propulsion’ of a ‘space machine’ that a person claims he (or she) encountered makes it easy to evade the fact that no such claims are accompanied by the definitive evidence that is characteristic of machines. Since the pattern of no proof is demonstratable, while the claims, themselves, are not, the pattern must take precedence over the claims. Thus, the rational searcher will use the pattern as a basis for finding a new explanation for the claims, rather than accept the claims at face value and have to resort to increasingly bizarre explanations to account for the resulting confusion.”

While the government had long been carrying out a program of obfuscation with regard to the flying saucer phenomenon, it appears that the primary obstacle to a saucer solution was the lack of comprehension on the part of those in the hierarchy of the ufology universe. Dr. Stranges, in private conversations with Peter Kor, Raymond Palmer and others, quickly realized that many of the researchers in this emerging field were truly afraid of making any rigorous inquiry. Perhaps the flying saucers that they have been so pursuing for so long might not actually be “out there” after all. And maybe these ufologists, so-called, might even prefer a euphoric fantasy to the stark reality of the situation.

It was a time for making hard choices. Unless some breakthrough would emerge, Dr. Stranges would have to concede that Peter Kor’s pessimistic assessment was the correct one; and perchance he was wasting his time dabbling in this field of ufology. If the situation was as dire as Kor thought it was, then the ufologists had a lot more to learn than just the hard sciences. Unless they came to a realization that there are greater values involved than psychological salvation and ideological competition, then the field of ufology would go the way of all pseudo-science that had preceded it. As the great metaphysician Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), co-founder of the Theosophical Society had noted, “There is no religion higher than truth.”

For Dr. Stranges, the search for truth must not be compromised. Given his own background, he saw the revelation mode as his best option in finding a solution to the flying saucer enigma. Therefore, the evangelist devoted himself to prayer and deep meditation on this subject. He needed an answer from God and patiently waited for it, not knowing what form it might take. Little did he realize that the traditional Contactee Era was soon coming to an end and that he would play such a central role in revitalizing the whole of ufology by providing an amazing contact account of his own, with an angelic messenger from Venus, no less!