THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL CONNECTION
"Flying saucers? Of course there are flying saucers! I have seen
many, both in the sky and on the ground, and I have even been for
a trip in one. Tibet is the most convenient country of all for flying
saucers. It is remote from the bustle of the everyday world, and is
peopled by those who place religion and scientific concepts before
material gain. Throughout the centuries, the people of Tibet have
known the truth about flying saucers, what they are, why they are,
how they work, and the purpose behind it all. We know of the
flying saucer people as the gods in the sky in their fiery chariots."
("Home of the Gods" in My Visit to Venus)
Like many writers of the 1950s, such as George Adamski and
George Hunt Williamson, Rampa described benevolent
extraterrestrials who had come to warn humanity about the follies
of nuclear power. During the following decades, his discussions
on extraterrestrials became more
sophisticated and on the cutting edge of UFO
research, particularly with The Hermit (1971)
which introduced the ideas of human
abduction and experimentation for genetic
engineering purposes. Clearly, Rampa's
revelations of extraterrestrial genetic
engineering pre-dated Zechariah Sitchin's
Earth Chronicles series, and yet his influence
in this genre is unrecognised.
• My Visit to Venus
My Visit to Venus, an anthology of Rampa
chapters which had been rejected from
earlier books, was published without
authorisation in late 1958 or early 1959
by Gray Barker, an American who ran
Saucerian Bulletin. Prior to Barker's
book, it had been published in various
magazines such as Flying Saucer
R e v i e w. Rampa did not want it
published, fearing it would be
dismissed as science fiction.
The opening chapter, "Home of the
Gods", continues on from Doctor from
Lhasa's description of a visit to the
Chang Tang Highlands, where the
lamas discovered a huge, ancient city.
Half frozen in a glacier, this city had
once accommodated a race of giants. "Nearby in a spacious
courtyard, there was an immense metal structure which reminded
me of two of our temple dishes clamped together and was clearly
a vehicle of some sort." The monks cautiously approached the
vehicle, which was about 50 to 60 feet (15.24 to 18.29 metres)
across, and ascended a ladder leading inside. Once inside,
Rampa's Guide touched something which caused the ship to hum
and emit a bluish light.
To their surprise, they were approached by large humans who
communicated telepathically: "Be not afraid, for we were aware of
your coming for the past hundred years. We made provisions so
that those who were intrepid enough to enter this vessel should
know the past." The humanoids showed them pictures from the
past civilisation: huge buildings which sat by the sea with disclike
vehicles soaring above. They witnessed an enormous
explosion which toppled the buildings and caused a tsunami to rise
above the ruins. The humanoids told them of a "White
Brotherhood", composed of incarnate and discarnate entities,
which safeguarded all life.
The chapter continued with the seven lamas being taken up into
space from where they could see Tibet. The vehicle left the
atmosphere, with no increase in gravity or sensation of speed, and
soared into space. The monks were taken on a tour of the
spaceship. Its propulsion system utilised a form of magnetism
which repelled the Earth's magnetism. The repelling force could
be adjusted to allow the vessel to hover, rise or sink. The ship was
also capable of collecting "space electricity"—a form of
magnetism based upon cosmic energy.
The Venusian hosts took the lamas in a strange vehicle to the
Hall of Knowledge, where they observed the Earth's creation along
with the mighty civilisations of Lemuria, Atlantis and Poseidonia.
The Broad One warned: "We guard the Earth, for, if man's folly is
allowed to go unchecked, terrible things will happen to the race of
man. There are powers upon the Earth, human powers who oppose
all thoughts of our ships, who say there is
nothing greater than the human upon Earth,
so there cannot be ships from other worlds."
Eventually, after many days, the Tibetans
were returned to Earth "which now seemed a
tawdry place" and "paled into significance
against the glory of Venus". The story ended
with this: "Never again, I thought, shall I see
such wonderful things. How mistaken I was,
for that was but the first of many trips."
• Beyond the Tenth
During the 1960s the subject of ufology
became established, and Rampa in his books
Chapters of Life and Beyond the Tenth
expanded the theme of aliens as the
guardians and indeed creators of the
Earth. He described UFOs as being of
four distinct types:
1. Extraterrestrials. These Gardeners
of the Earth, an extremely advanced
race from another galaxy, colonised our
planet billions of years ago. Every now
and then they come back to check on the
progress of the human race.
2. Inner Earth inhabitants. In the
Venus anthology, they are described as
advanced humanoids who live in the
Earth's interior and sometimes use their
vehicles to explore the Earth's surface. This theme was later
expanded in Twilight.
3. Antimatter vehicles. These explode when they come into
contact with the Earth's atmosphere.
4. Interdimensional vehicles containing aliens from other
realms. Usually we are unable to perceive these aliens, as they
vibrate at a different frequency to human beings. We can only
perceive their vehicles as gyrating lights in the sky, a thirddimensional
shadow of fourth-dimensional vehicles.
Beyond the Tenth was published in 1969, the same year that
Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods? was published in
English. While the Swiss author built his case upon incongruous
ancient anomalies, Rampa stated unequivocally that "Earth is like
a colony; Earth is a testing ground, a seeding place where different
types are put together so that the Gardeners of Space can see how
they get on together" (p. 77). He claimed that even though the
Gardeners were friendly and concerned with our welfare, they
sometimes abducted and experimented upon humans in an effort to
improve our species.
APRIL – MAY 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 51
During the
following decades,
his discussions
on extraterrestrials
became more
sophisticated and
on the cutting edge
of UFO research...
Rampa was also aware of censorship surrounding the reporting
of UFOs in the West. "The pilots who fly the [aircraft], whether in
a commercial capacity or in connection with the armed forces,
have seen and will continue to see UFOs but, until the moronic
governments of the world change their attitudes, not much will be
heard of those sightings. The Argentinian government is surely
one of the most enlightened in that they officially recognise the
existence of UFOs." (p. 86) The military clique cannot
acknowledge UFOs because it would compromise security and
reveal their vulnerability. He noted that any reference that
astronauts make to UFOs while they're in space is deleted and their
photos destroyed. While this may have sounded like unfounded
paranoia in the 1960s, many people today believe there has been a
monstrous government conspiracy of silence lasting over 50
years—a belief fuelled by such TV shows as The X-Files, Dark
Skies, The Smoking Gun and Roswell.
Rampa also claimed that religious leaders would not
acknowledge UFOs because it would shake their paradigm that
man is made in the image of God, if an advanced alien appeared to
be non-human.
Further, he noted: "If the UFO people had wanted to take over
the Earth, they could have done it centuries ago. The point is, they
are afraid that they will have to take over the Earth (and they do
not want to) if the Earth goes on releasing too much hard atomic
radiation. These spacemen are the
Gardeners of the Earth. They are trying
to save the Earth from the Earth
people—and what a time they are
having!" (p. 89)
• The Hermit
Five years before Sitchin wrote his
cult classic The Twelfth Planet ,
expounding the belief that
extraterrestrials had seeded and
genetically engineered the human race,
Rampa explained the whole process in
The Hermit. The story began with a
blind old Tibetan hermit imparting his
knowledge to "the chosen one". In his youth he had been abducted
by an advanced race who revealed themselves as "the Gardeners of
the Earth". They took him to another galaxy and performed
medical experiments upon his unwilling body, including brain
surgery to increase his intelligence. Bluntly they informed him
that the Earthlings were a very evil race who threatened to destroy
not only themselves but other intelligent life on nearby worlds.
The Gardeners informed him: "We travel in universes putting
people and animals on many different worlds. You Earthlings
have your legends about us; you refer to us as gods of the sky.
Now we are to give you information as to the origin of life on
Earth…for it is time that people knew the truth of their gods before
we initiate the second phase." (p. 14) They transported the blind
monk to another galaxy and implanted artificial sight so that he
could witness the wonders of their civilisation. He was taken to the
centre of the empire, where "the colours were all wrong. The grass
was red and the rocks were yellow. The sky was of a greenish cast
and there were two suns." (p. 104)
The empire was vast and incorporated many different planets
and star systems which co-existed in harmony. The inhabitants
were humanoids with varied characteristics and features. There
were vast cities of towering spires traversed by flying vehicles of
all descriptions. This world was the headquarters of the vast
empire, where every planet was self-governing but owed
allegiance to the Master of the World.
The Gardeners took the monk to an orbiting observatory where
nine wise men were in charge of observing the Akashic records of
Earth and other worlds. They showed him the history of the world,
beginning with a huge comet colliding with a dead world at the
centre of the galaxy, sending out gobbets of incandescent gas
which eventually became the planets. Two expeditions explored
the new worlds while a third dropped biological specimens onto
the land and into the seas. Millennia later, a fourth expedition
delivered huge dinosaurs to planet Earth. However, after many
years the Earth was wobbling on its axis, so a vessel was
despatched to break up the supercontinent with a laser beam.
Another expedition brought purple humanoids to the Earth
which had eight breasts and long, ape-like arms. They lived in
caves and could not use fire, so the Gardeners were forced to
exterminate them to make room for more advanced humans. After
thousands of years and climate change, these humans developed a
mighty civilisation. But the Gardeners fraternised too freely with
the Earthlings, especially the women. A group stole their
technology, attacked them and let off a nuclear device which
wreaked havoc upon the Earth, sinking whole cities and continents
beneath the oceans.
For centuries the Gardeners stayed away from the irradiated
planet but eventually returned with more human and animal
specimens, distributing them on
different continents. Mankind
eventually evolved and built towns
and cities, while the supervising
Gardeners were worshipped as gods
by the Earth inhabitants.
From another galaxy, a warlike race
with horny growths on their forehead
attacked the empire and laid waste to
our solar system. Cataclysmic battles
took place in the heavens:
atmospheres were blasted away and
worlds destroyed. A planet, dislodged
from its orbit, struck the Earth,
causing a catastrophic loss of life.
Only a few humans and animals, aided by the Gardeners, were
conveyed to safety in a great ark.
On the Earth, a great ice age developed. The Gardeners now
decided to live apart from humans and dwell on mountains. Some
inexperienced Gardeners, the "gods of Olympus", engaged in
licentious behaviour and were transferred to other worlds. So the
Gardeners then decided to communicate only through suitably
chosen natives such as Moses, Buddha and Jesus, who were
instructed to institute new religions. But always the priests
perverted the true teachings for their own power and gain.
The hermit was returned to a comfortable cave in Tibet where he
was told a "chosen one" would come many years later to hear his
wisdom. The Gardeners decided that even though the auras of the
human race were faulty, mankind would be given another chance.
However, if humans did not heed such warnings and stop polluting
their planet with radioactivity, the Gardeners would be forced to
intervene at any time in the future.
• Tibetan Sage
In Tibetan Sage, Rampa provided more information about these
Gardeners, although he repeated many themes from earlier books.
With his Guide, he visited an artificial cave which "...used to be the
headquarters of a special race who could do space travel and just
about everything else.
52 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com APRIL – MAY 2006
Some of Rampa's ideas
were original and may have
influenced later writers.