Aboard a Flying Saucer: Truman Bethurum and the People of the Planet Clarion (3 page)

By the time the first of the little men had disembarked, Bethurum was already out of his truck, anxious to go aboard the saucer.

"Surprised to see us here?" the lady captain greeted him as he stepped into her quarters.

But he was not surprised. It had all become familiar to him, even routine. He moved right to his question about the flashlight. Captain Rhanes had said Clarionites never killed anybody, but if they made an attacker disappear –
forever
, she had said about the flashlight – would that person disappear forever? And to where? And doesn't that mean he would die?

The lady captain laughed and looked engagingly into his eyes. "It's true, we never kill anybody," she said, soothingly. Our enemies fall and disappear before us. Then we go away. They may rise and go about their business – if they have done no real damage. There is such a thing as teleportation…"

Bethurum's mind was eased, even though he had not completely understood her explanation. He decided to move quickly to his next question. A young waitress from the Glendale restaurant were he had once spotted Aura Rhanes and her crewmen had given him a letter, a personal question for the Space People, written in French. He had claimed that the Clarionites could speak all languages fluently, and the letter was a test. The girl had encoded her question in a language Bethurum himself clearly could not read or speak, and she wanted the reply to come back in that language as well. Only then would she believe that Bethurum was sincere in his stories of interplanetary contact.

He gave the letter to Captain Rhanes, and requested that she respond not only in French, but also in Chinese, to really bring home the point that the intelligences behind the flying saucers were far greater than his own. The lady captain held the letter up briefly to the cabin wall behind her, with the writing facing away. Then she sat down at her desk, produced pen and paper, and began to write freely in strange Chinese characters.

As she wrote, Bethurum heard in the distance the familiar sound of a typewriter clicking away. One of the little men appeared through the cabin door and handed the captain a thin, typed sheet. Bethurum could see that the words on the typed sheet were in French.

Had the crewman read the waitress's letter through the solid wall as his captain had briefly held it up? Had Aura Rhanes telepathically dictated an answer to him in French, even as she wrote out a corresponding answer to the girl's question in Chinese? With all Bethurum knew about these remarkable Space People, he found himself, once again, amazed.

Dear Maria:

On this planet, exactly as on Earth, human beings are of the same nature and have to confront the same problems as you and I. It seems, however, that civilization, such as we find on Earth, has brought many misfortunes to men. We are Christians here and on this point we have not retrogressed as I see from here the dreadful paganism which is gnawing at modern countries. You come from a country where customs and manners are stricter and, on the other hand, there are in America more liberties and greater licentiousness to which one must adapt oneself. If, on the contrary, either your husband or you do not place yourself on guard against the lures and mirages of attitudes based on negligence and selfishness in your marital relations, it is often difficult to keep the love of a husband who has strayed from the straight path without any apparent cause on your part. Try then to convince him by your unlimited fidelity and your complete devotion, refusing to permit your heart to revolt or to reproach past weakness. But, above all, learn to place your faith in God, and, by Christian effort which will be an example to him, try to lead him back to a sincere faith or to increase in him the practice of religion. Here, God has saved us from our inclemencies and has spared us many social misfortunes. We are not acquainted with divorce, adultery and infidelity to the dangerous degree that it exists on the Planet Earth. Learn from us about the power such as we have already displayed it; some day Earth will no longer be what it is if men do not change; they are destroying themselves by inches.

From your friend without equal to those on Earth,

Madame Aura

"I fancy this letter will be the talk of the town, when it gets around," Aura Rhanes said lightly, placing the letter into Bethurum's hand. She promised him that soon he would journey with them to visit Clarion itself. Then she led him out of the saucer. Before he reached his truck, the scow vanished into the clear desert sky.

Between September 16th and November 2nd, 1952, Truman Bethurum was visited by the scow from Clarion, and its beautiful lady captain, five more times. With each visit, he learned more about the culture and customs of the Clarionites, and each time the promise of his personal visit to their distant world was renewed - although the trip itself always seemed to be postponed until the scow's "next visit." He was instructed to make plans for his eventual flight into space by inviting six trustworthy friends, all men, and making sure they all brought "sturdy shoes."

In his conversations with Captain Rhanes, Bethurum began to conceive a clear picture of life on the heavenly home world of his strange friends, and of their mission here on Earth:

Clarion children are educated from birth to value honesty, neatness and order.

All Clarionites continue their education throughout their long lives. The purpose of all education on Clarion is to bring each individual to the greatest fulfillment of his or her personal potential.

Clarionites consider education and its use for enhancing the lives of their people to be the true purpose of life and society. Their visits to Earth are for the purpose of learning and expanding the quality of life for Clarionites and Earthlings alike.

Much education on Clarion is made possible by a device called a "retroscope" which allows them to view any point in space or time, granting them a remarkable grasp of cosmic history.

Clarionites love to dance and sing, and hold many large public celebrations where they can join together to appreciate the splendor of their lives and their world.

Food is grown on Clarion on vast, high-tech farms. When harvest season arrives, everyone pitches in to gather the crops, which are freely shared by all.

Personal transportation on their world is accomplished with "Nutronic Jeeps" which are computer controlled, making them incapable of collision, a feat made possible by a system of "magnetic flashes."

The Clarionites do not find it surprising that most earthlings do not believe in life on other worlds, because they, too, did not accept the possibility until they began their interplanetary expeditions and discovered life on earth. They have since discovered that many planets harbor human life. An interplanetary human community exists in space, into which we will be welcomed when we are ready.

It is possible that beings from worlds other than Clarion are visiting the Earth, probably out of fear of what we might do now that we have developed nuclear weapons. Should we blow ourselves up, it would set loose considerable confusion in space, and many ET races would be negatively effected.

Clarionite visitors to Earth keep their distance from us because of our tendency to attack that which we do not understand. They are secretive out of self-protection, and out of a desire to never hurt an Earth human, even in self-defense.

Clarionite saucers can be easily distinguished in the night sky from meteors because "falling stars" always fall in a downward, perfect arc, changing colors as they burn up in Earth's atmosphere. Any light moving in a straight line, at high speed, and maintaining one color is probably a Clarion scow or other type of interplanetary craft.

As Bethurum was walking back to his truck after his tenth meeting with Aura Rhanes, he came across a strange package lying in the desert sands as if dropped from the sky. A tag on the package bore his name. Inside were two long, black flares – to be used, he was certain, to signal the Admiral's Scow to land if he again wished a visit or required his friends' intervention. When he got back to his room, he stored the flares carefully away.

In October, 1952, Bethurum's job at Mormon Mesa ended, and he soon found himself laboring in a work camp near Kingman, Arizona. He worried that the Clarionites might not locate him at the new site, so, after no further visits had occurred by November 2nd, he set out into the Arizona desert to test the signal flares. Within moments of the first flare's bursting into fiery life, the familiar ship appeared, and Bethurum once again had an audience with Captain Rhanes. The time for his trip into space was soon, he was informed. He should prepare for departure.

But when the beautiful lady captain and her magnificent ship vanished this eleventh time, it was to be their final visit with Truman Bethurum. His promise of space travel was never fulfilled.

When igniting the second signal flare some weeks later brought no response from the sky, Bethurum became disconsolate and disappointed. He guessed that urgent business elsewhere had diverted Captain Rhanes from her promise, perhaps even recalling her to her heavenly home world. But still, he felt abandoned and sad.

When the Arizona job ended, he returned home to his wife and daughters in Redondo Beach, California. His wife, Mary, still refused to believe his saucer stories, and forbade him to speak of his experiences in their home. Bethurum's depression deepened.

One day a letter arrived in the morning mail that changed everything in the Bethurum household. The world-renowned extraterrestrial contactee George Adamski had heard about Bethurum's experiences among the Space People, and was inviting Truman and Mary to visit him on Mt. Palomar, where he lived and shared his own stories of interplanetary contact. That so prominent a public figure had taken a serious interest in her husband's stories softened Mary's resolve, and she agreed to join him in the visit to Mt. Palomar.

Adamski made a tape recording of Bethurum telling his story in detail, a tape destined to be played for the many visitors to Mr. Adamski's home, and shared among his fellow saucer researchers. The tape was a sensation, and soon saucer enthusiasts were knocking on Bethurum's door at all hours of the day and night, and calling him from every corner of the globe. At Mr. Adamski's urging, he enlisted a professional ghostwriter, Ms. Mary K. Tennison, to help him compile his stories and notes into a definitive narrative of all his Clarion contacts.

Truman Bethurum never made it into space on a Clarion scow, but his book Aboard a Flying Saucer established him as the second great contactee of the 1950s, and launched him forever into the firmament of stars that make up the true Golden Age of Flying Saucers.

Aboard a Flying Saucer
original 1954
book cover depiction of the Clarion "Admiral's Scow" resting on the Nevada desert sands.

Truman Bethurum posing beside a copy of his 1954 book
Aboard a Flying Saucer
.

Thank you for reading
Aboard a Flying Saucer: Truman Bethurum and the People of the Planet Clarion – A True Account of Factual Experience
, by Frank G. Wilkinson
.
This is a chapter excerpt from Frank's book-length celebration of vintage UFO/Contactee history,
The Golden Age of Flying Saucers: Classic UFO Sightings, Saucer Crashes and Extraterrestrial Contact Encounters
, which is available everywhere fine eBooks are sold.

What Reviewers Are Saying About

THE GOLDEN AGE OF FLYING SAUCERS

Each chapter is written in an exciting "you are there" sort of perspective that paints vivid pictures in your mind, and reads like fast-paced fiction. There are lots of names and dates and facts included in each account, but they never bog you down. The stories are good enough to keep your interest peaked and your eyes moving across the page.

-- Bill Breyer, Amazon.com Review

# # #

This a good compilation of historic UFO cases and a great little reference book. It's good for the amateur investigator, the student, and as a quick-reference book when trying to recall specific events of famous sightings during various times.

-- Joseph R. Calamia, Amazon.com Review

# # #

The Golden Age of Flying Saucers delivers the spine-tingling suspense and spookiness every ten year old craves, while masterfully capturing a certain nostalgic "gosh-wow" feeling about the 1950s that every parent with ties to that decade can't help but embrace like a warm, fuzzy blanket. Remember The Day the Earth Stood Still? or Earth VS the Flying Saucers? That's the feeling. Buy this book now!

-- Jack Preston King, Author of
A World In Edgewise: Thirteen Sidereal Journeys

ALSO
AVAILABLE
BY FRANK G. WILKINSON:

In
NO BAD CONTACT: Notes from the Crossroads of Extraterrestrial Contact and Human
Culture
,
noted UFO historian, researcher and author Frank G. Wilkinson applies his sharp wit, piercing powers of insight and observation, decades of UFO research experience, and his own inimitable writing style to explore the implications for earthly human culture of such diverse extraterrestrial topics as the Grey Alien Presence, the likelihood of a faked US Government ET invasion, the Internet as a model for extraterrestrial contact, why people believe in God but not Aliens, possible motivations driving the global governmental UFO cover-up, what ET is really trying to tell us, and more!
Available everywhere fine eBooks are sold.