Flying Saucers, U.S. Intelligence, Sinister Forces,
and the NINE (the Ennead)
The Occult Influence Behind Nazi Ideology Continues to Influence U.S. Space Exploration on the Ground, in the Air, and in the Space between the Ears.
Because of the alien nature of the tryptamine trance, its seeming accentuation of themes alien, insectile, and futuristic, and because of previous experiences with tryptamine in which insectile hallucinatory transformations of human beings were observed, we were led to speculate that the role of the presence was somehow like that of an anthropologist, come to give humanity the keys to galactarian citizenship.
Terence McKenna,
The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching (1975)
The involvement of intelligence agents in the field of Egyptian archaeology, the UFO phenomenon, and other odd pursuits…point out that
psychological warfare, literature, archaeology, and the paranormal not only make for strange bedfellows; in the war years of the last
century it was positively an orgy.
Peter Levenda, Sinister Forces, (2005)
The Puppet Masters of the Early Days
Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, in their sizeable work, The Stargate Conspiracy: The Truth About Extraterrestrial Life and the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, document how the U.S. Military has not only been involved in conducting psychic operations to spy out technical intelligence from our enemies—their reach goes well beyond, extending into the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life, ancient civilizations in our solar system (notably Mars, but secondarily the Moon), and the connections with the alternative theories of Ancient Egypt, specifically the meaning of the Giza complex and the Great Pyramids. While it is possible (but unlikely) direct military involvement in these matters ceased sometime in the 1970s, it is clear that SRI (perhaps as cover for government participation and funding), continued to be involved in research at Giza, and that NASA has a lot more to tell us about the true motivations behind the space program—especially why we might wanted to get to Mars as soon as possible.
We only have room in this article to highlight how the military launched the activity leading to these outcomes. We will document here the origins of the strange activity, what the key players initiated, and underscore their impact today.
Suffice it to say, ‘astounding’ doesn’t begin to describe the facts.
As mentioned in a previous previously, the history of U.S. Government involvement in the paranormal begins in the 1940s, not the 1970s. “The first experiments in the paranormal were authorized by the CIA in 1950, codenamed BLUEBIRD, later renamed ARTICHOKE and then, in 1953, MKULTRA. The U.S. Navy had a similar research program, Project CHATTER (beginning in 1947), which pooled its resources with the CIA projects, and the U.S. Army had its own version called Project OFTEN, which ran between 1968 and 1973.”[i] Other project names float around too, such as Project GRILL FLAME which was an umbrella term for anything psychic.
The principal character of the early going was the fascinating personality Dr. Andrija Puharich (known by his family as Hank).[ii] He was Chicago-born, of Yugoslavian parents in 1918, and became a successful inventor of medical gadgets such as improved deaf aids. Puharich qualified as a doctor and neurologist at Northwestern University in 1947. “But that was only part of his life, his more public face. He was also known as a brave pioneer in the ‘Cinderella science’ of parapsychology, or—as many have come to view it—the study of the hitherto unplumbed powers of the human mind.”[iii] But what is the relevance of Puharich?
There is no doubt that he was very deeply committed to much of the mind control experimentation of the military/CIA. He was certainly no mere Army doctor, whose work was confined to handing out pills and potions. In fact, even the Round Table Foundation—as Puharich himself implies in [his book] The Sacred Mushroom—was a front for the Army’s parapsychological experiments.
When he was redrafted in February 1953 it was as a captain at the Army Chemical Center in Edgewood, Maryland, the Army’s facility for research into chemical and psychological warfare and neuro-physical research, where he served until April 1955, when he returned to the Round Table Foundation.[iv]
It is well-known the Army’s Chemical Center at Edgewood, where Puharich was stationed, conducted joint experiments with the CIA’s MKULTRA team. “The Army’s real interest, the real reason why they [employed] Puharich, was not just in the development of the military potential of ESP, but also the possibility of finding a drug that would stimulate psychic abilities.”[v]
And what we will learn in the pages following is that the Army was paying big dollars to consultants who would have been considered crazy by the general population because they believed in somebody up there on Mars and psychics who could connect with them.
The official account is that the Army didn’t start experimenting with psychics until the 1970s through studies at SRI; however Puharich presented a paper on the Army’s behalf to the Pentagon in November 1952 entitled “An Evaluation of the Possible Usefulness of Extrasensory Perception in Psychological Warfare.”[vi] While it is highly probable Puharich was right at the center of the experiments using LSD, it’s quite clear both the CIA and the Army determined not to use drugs as a means to facilitate remote viewing (RV was a means to project one’s consciousness as a distance to observe invisibly situations in order to gather intelligence by paranormal means). While it is supposition and unproven that some sort of ‘chemical basis’ serves as a means for humans to exhibit psychic ability, many of the substances already exist in small amounts naturally within human physiology.
As Graham Hancock notes in his book Supernatural, approximately two percent of the population seem to possess enough naturally occurring dimethyltryptamine (DMT) “within themselves” they don’t require any assistance from drugs (DMT—a substance similar chemically to serotonin which at sufficient quantities generates hallucinations in human subjects).[vii] Apparently it is for this reason the military screened and selected only a few persons to do remote viewing—clearly those which could perform well without pharmacological help.
According to Jack Sarfatti (another colorful character we will discuss), Puharich worked for Army Intelligence in the early fifties—which implies his discharge later in the 1950s provided a cover for continuing to operate on behalf of the military but in an civilian capacity. It also appears some of Puharich’s medical inventions (mostly related to hearing—hopefully not just ‘voices’) were originally developed as part of classified Army projects. According to Sarfatti, Puharich claimed in 1987 he had been part of a U.S. Navy investigation called Project PENGUIN researching psychic abilities in 1948.
Over the next twenty years [his career actually extended almost 40 years] Puharich devoted himself to more general parapsychological and medical research. He set up a company, the Intelectron Corporation, to market his many patented medical inventions. On the parapsychological side, apart from testing various psychics, he made a special, in-depth study of shamanism. He was particularly interested in shamanic techniques for altering states of consciousness, including the use of various hallucinogenic plants and “sacred” mushrooms. Never one to stand on the sidelines, Puharich threw himself into these studies, even being initiated into the mysteries of Hawaiian shamanism, emerging as a fully-fledged kahuna. At least as significant—in light of what was to come—was his personal training in hypnosis to the level of master hypnotist, at which stage are revealed such mysteries as the “instant command technique” so often used, an arguably abused, by stage hypnotists. Out of this admirably “hand-on” research he wrote two books, The Sacred Mushroom (1959) and Beyond Telepathy (1962).[viii]
From 1948 until 1958, Puharich ran a private research center focused on the paranormal he called the Round Table Foundation in Glen Cove, Maine. He carried out experiments with several then-famous psychics such as the Irish medium Eileen Garrett and the Dutch clairvoyant Peter Hurkos. But it was his work with another psychic which commenced a radically new path forward.
Introducing THE NINE
“In 1952 he took an Indian mystic, Dr. D.G. Vinod, to the laboratory, although apparently not so much to test his abilities as to listen to his teachings, which came by what is now known as ‘channeling’: more or less identical to old-fashioned trance mediumship, in which the medium becomes a conduit for various discarnate spirits.”[ix]
The intrigue deepens when we discover the subject that occupied Puharich after holding a séance at his Round Table Foundation in Glen Cove, Maine. “The first of these sessions took place on 31 December 1952. Vinod entered the trance state and at exactly 9 PM, spoke. His first words were, portentously: ‘We are Nine Principles and Forces.’ One of the ‘Nine,’ who identified himself only as ‘M’ (a second communicator, ‘R’, also appeared over the next few months), furnished some extremely detailed scientific information concerning a variant of the Lorentz-Einstein Transformation equation (relating to energy, mass and the speed of light)” [emphasis added].[x]
This is the first record of many meetings with a group of entities that identified themselves as personas numbering nine in total. The ‘nine’ of Dr. Vinod would become Puharich’s obsession and both directly and indirectly inaugurate a fascination with intelligences outside our world. Within three decades, millions would come to believe in these nine entities as one example among many to be the ‘scientific’ alternative explanation for divine intervention in the evolution of humankind. Indirectly, the teachings of these nine principles or forces (hereafter, I will refer to them as THE NINE) provided anecdotal support for what is now called “ancient astronaut theory,” such as espoused by Erich von Däniken (of Chariots of the Gods’ fame). Adding to this exalted nine is recent research related to the Mayan prediction of an apocalyptic event scheduled for December 21, 2012 when their nine gods return to earth.[xi] (Did they appear in 2012? Nein!)
After working further with Vinod for several months, Puharich was ready to roll out the notion of THE NINE by inviting nine (not an accidental number of invitations to be sure) persons composed of upper-echelon Americans to meet with him and Dr. Vinod on June 27 of the next year (1953). Those attending included Arthur M. Young (philosopher and inventor—also one time head of Bell Helicopter who was related to the flap around the killing of Kennedy as discussed in an earlier post) and Alice Bouverie (née Astor), daughter of the founder of the Astoria Hotel in New York. When speaking thru Vinod, THE NINE took center stage, but played coy as to who and what they actually were. At first, they didn’t identify themselves as extraterrestrials. That would eventually change.
About two years later, Puharich, Young, and Hurkos went to Mexico seeking to use Hurkos’ powers in an attempt to find certain artifacts at the ancient site of Acámbaro.
In the Hôtel de Paris they met an American couple, Dr. Charles Laughead and his wife Lillian, who were working with a young man who claimed to be in telepathic contact with various alien races. Shortly after his return to the United States, Puharich received a letter from Laughead—a copy of which they sent to Young—giving communications from the extraterrestrials. And this referred to “the Nine,” giving the correct date for their first contact via Dr. Vinod as well as the same information about the Lorentz-Einstein Transformation. This appeared to be exciting independent corroboration of the Nine’s existence.[xii]
It also transformed THE NINE from ‘spirits’ or forces to extraterrestrials. Ever since that moment, THE NINE have attempted to establish their identity as extraterrestrials. It’s almost as if THE NINE decided that self-identifying as ET would be much more chic.
Therefore, it seems plausible connecting THE NINE to extraterrestrials directly resulted from Charles Laughead’s earlier experience documented in the book, When Prophecy Fails (a classic study book in Sociology Classes). In 1954, an apocalyptic group, the “Brotherhood of the Seven Rays” expected a rescue from extraterrestrials intended to save them and them alone from a global flood. This group of staunch believers included the Laughead’s. Dorothy Martin, known as Marian Keech in the book, was their psychic leader.[xiii] While Martin was emotionally destroyed “when the prophecy failed,” Laughead and his wife were nonplussed and continued to promote aliens and publicize their determination to arrive at, shall we say, an earthly destination. Consequently, very soon after the experiences recorded in the book, the Laughead’s met Puharich and his psychic posse.
Vinod was not the only medium attracting Puharich. From another psychic, Puharich opened a different controversial door, this one to ‘alternate history’. When serving in the Army as Captain in 1954, Puharich encountered a young Dutch psychic named Harry Stone through Alice Bouverie. Stone provided a channeled message regarding a drug that would excite psychic ability.[xiv] This also tied into another of Puharich’s duties: studying psychoactive substances on behalf of the army. It seems Stone’s messages opened the door to the ancient Egypt connection. One of the voices identified himself as Ra and then later Rahotep.[xv] Apparently, Ra’s main concern was to communicate news about a specific drug used by Heliopolian priests (an ancient religious capitol near Giza founded before 3000 BC) to:
…“open the door” to the gods: a mushroom that induced hallucinatory experiences, a sort of a chemical stargate. From Stone’s drawings, Puharich was to identify the mushroom as amanita muscaria, or fly agaric. Bouverie’s automatic writing predicted that a specimen would shortly be found near the Round Table Foundation’s building in Maine… [it was.]
Puharich had settled on the psychoactive drugs used by shaman as the main focus of his research and in 1953 had contacted R. Gordon Wasson, the first researcher to study the shamanic mushroom cult of Mexico. The two set up an experiment to see if the Mexican shamans, or curanderos, could, under the influence of the mushroom, “visit” the Round Table Foundation’s laboratory in Maine. The long-distance experience never happened, but it is interesting that Puharich was already thinking in terms of remote viewing (although he did not use that term the)[xvi] [comment mine].
The 1960s was a dark period for the military from the perspective of public exposure to its research into the paranormal. Puharich’s activities remained covert along with other rumblings about the nature of how drugs were being administered by the military to enlisted men. Ironically, the drug, LSD, was touted at the beginning of the decade as a ‘savior’ to Western culture. It promised to be the doorway to a new society, forming the basis for so-called counter-culture made famous at the rock concert Woodstock. But by the end of the sixties, LSD was ultimately discredited along with the counter-culture. The ‘hippie hope’ declined almost as quickly as it was hailed soon after the violent incidents at another rock concert, Altamont, in 1969.[xvii]
Spoon Bending and Star Trek
We jump to 1970 and the matter for which Andrija Puharich is most famous. Puharich was turned on to an entertainer mystic named Uri Gellar, who was entertaining in Tel Aviv night clubs. This acquaintance began when Puharich was training Israelis on his medical
devices, “electrostimulation” or hearing for the deaf. What the real story was behind Uri Geller and his importance to the U.S. Military certainly involved much more than bending spoons (and other parlor tricks). Early on, Puharich hypnotized Geller seeking to find out the source of his skills. However, critics say Puharich used leading questions in his hypnotic projects and influenced Geller to state that THE NINE were the source of his powers.
In total, Puharich and Geller were together for two years in Israel. While there, things grew very strange. According to Picknett and Prince (who interviewed Geller directly), they encountered many paranormal experiences including UFOs and even objects teleporting through solid walls. Significantly, Geller, himself, was not a convert to THE NINE, even though he channeled them repeatedly during Puharich’s mentorship. Gellar found their pranks childish and ultimately unimpressive. He was to say of them in August 1972: “I think somebody is playing games with us. Perhaps they are a civilization of clowns.”[xviii] By October 1973, Geller distanced himself from THE NINE. And apparently, after introducing Geller to the military, Geller was shipped off to SRI for research as mentioned in the prior chapter. It’s not clear how much contact Geller and Puharich maintained after this period.
However, the channeling of THE NINE continued at Puharich’s estate in Ossining, New York. A new group was formed called Lab Nine. New players included Sir John Whitmore and Phyllis Schlemmer. Also participating was Canada’s richest family, the Bronfman’s (the owners of the Seagram liquor business). “One famous name very much part of the Lab Nine scene in the mid-1970s was Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek.”[xix] Roddenberry’s participation in the group began in 1974. Whitmore commissioned Roddenberry to make a film called The Nine, but this project never saw the light of day. Peter Levenda comments that pop-star John Denver was also a member of this group. He was apparently interested in more than just a ‘rocky mountain high’.
Schlemmer was a noted and gifted medium—the next in the continuous stream Puharich continued to conjure up. (Her early-on claim to fame originated at her Catholic college where Catholic priests had her accompany them on exorcisms since she could see when the spirits left the possessed.) Notably, Schlemmer channeled an extraterrestrial named “Tom” beginning in 1970. Eventually this Tom became the leading spokesperson for THE NINE. Puharich was instrumental in bringing all of these players (both human and not-so-human) together. For many years, THE NINE would explain their role in the galaxy, the creation of humankind, their involvement in our evolution, the relationship to Atlantis and to Egypt, and make many predictions, most of which didn’t come true.
What was the core message of THE NINE? They indicated extraterrestrials first came to Earth thirty-four thousand years ago. They were instrumental in the formations of the pyramids of Egypt and Central America. Soon they will make their presence known in a highly visible way (which continues to be postponed). Their name refers to The Great Ennead or nine gods of Egypt. Tom is supposedly Atum, the leader of the nine gods of Heliopolis.[xx]
What is their intent in communicating to us now? According to their ‘channelers’, they are disclosing themselves to select individuals to guide us in the days ahead. Unfortunately but predictably, their message smacks of the New Age writings of Alice Bailey, including her sinister assumption of anti-Semitism.[xxi] Interestingly, one of their tricks suggests they can do more than just talk:
On the evening of 26 November 1977, television broadcasts in parts of southern England were interrupted by a voice claiming to be a representative of an extraterrestrial civilization, saying that they would be landing on Earth soon in order to prevent mankind from destroying itself. Dismissed as a student prank, few have noticed that the short message included this sentence: “We conveyed to Sir John Whitmore and to Dr. Puharich that we would interfere on your radio and television communication system to relay when the civilisations are coming close to landing on your planet.”[xxii] [Emphasis added]
NOTE: Knowing about the hidden puppet masters who were named in the Broadcast and witnessed by thousands probably wasn’t something that pranksters could have pulled off.
The Only Planet of Choice
But most importantly, in 1992 Schlemmer and Whitmore collaborated to publish a compilation of Tom’s “collected wisdom” in the book, The Only Planet of Choice: Essential Briefings from Deep Space. This popular work includes a front-page endorsement by James Hurtak (another amazing persona we discuss in a moment).
According to Picknett and Prince, Whitmore and Schlemmer continue to meet ‘to this day’ (as of 1999). The Only Planet of Choice continues to be a best-selling book and is standard reading for those obsessed with UFOs, extraterrestrials, and their soon appearance on Planet Earth. To those inclined to verify details shared here, see http://www.theonlyplanetofchoice.com.
To complete the story of Andrija Puharich: His house in Ossining was burned down in 1978, after which he went to Mexico to study a physic surgeon, known by the name Pachita. After 1980, when he returned, he appeared to have no more contact with THE NINE. In 1995 he fell down the stairs in a South Carolina house lent to him by one of his followers, Joshua Reynolds III. This eventually led to his death. Puharich would later blame the CIA for the fire, claiming that they were trying to stop his experiments with “The Geller Kids” (aka Space Kids, a subsequent joint effort with Geller) in which Puharich appeared to be using hypnosis to either detect the source of their psychic abilities or to plant suggestions into their heads about THE NINE.
For the kids’ sake at the very least, the fire couldn’t have come soon enough.
Perhaps it is significant that Andrija Puharich was described by [his close associate] Ira Einhorn as ‘the great psychic circus manager of this century’. He was certainly not averse to media attention, although he kept much of his work secret. In the 1960s he played himself in an episode of Perry Mason, appearing as an expert witness of psychic phenomena, yet much of his career remains sketchy, and he happily compounded the mystery by introducing inconsistencies and obvious evasions into his own account of his life and work.[xxiii]
This same Ira Einhorn, “confirmed Puharich’s determination to turn all psychic communication into contact with [THE NINE], and that he was ‘humanly directing’ the pattern of the channeling.”[xxiv]
Authors Picknett and Prince ask: “Could Puharich have manipulated [THE NINE’s] communications as part of some long-term experiment? Given his connections with intelligence agencies, was this part of a CIA program?”[xxv] “The evidence clearly suggests that the business of THE NINE was not an isolated series of paranormal events but an orchestrated drama, involving outside agencies…with Puharich running it from the inside.”[xxvi]
Exactly why Puharich took this course of action isn’t clear to Picknett and Prince. Neither is it clear if Puharich was a believer in the implied cosmology and the reality of THE NINE, or whether he was merely experimenting on behalf of the CIA with how groups of people become believers in outlandish notions involving the supernatural. Perhaps it was a sociological study such as conducted by Leon Festinger’s group during the events recorded in his book, When Prophecy Fails.
There is no question this is exactly what happened with the followers of Adolf Hitler. Conceivably this was the motivating force behind a deceptive experiment in America as well. In other words, some suggest Puharich was conducting a program of disinformation merely to see how it affected others; in this instance, the author doesn’t share that view. While someone or something may have been pulling the strings (including the life and activities of Andrija Puharich), it may not have been the U.S. Government. Indeed, it may not have been any human entity whatsoever.[xxvii]
Alongside Dr. Puharich, Levenda’s “sinister forces” may have been at work. Indeed, Levenda’s subtitle to his Sinister Forces is telling: “The Nine” is the only nine he references.
Announcing the new book, REVISING REALITY: A BIBLICAL LOOK INTO THE COSMOS. Available from Faith Happens September 15, 2016.
Authors: Anthony Patch, Josh Peck, Gonzo Shimura, and S. Douglas Woodward (Editor)
[i] Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, The Stargate Conspiracy: The Truth About Extraterrestrial Life and the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt (New York, NY: Berkley Publishing Group, 1999), p. 207–208.
[ii] An interesting synchronicity (or a small world story): Dr. Puharich’s nephew is a good friend who I’ve known for ten years who lived in the Seattle area until very recently. He was able to confirm a number of elements of his story, particularly his experience with Uri Geller, who my friend had met on one occasion with his Uncle Hank.
[iii] Ibid., p. 208.
[iv] Ibid., p. 208–209.
[v] Ibid., p. 210.
[vi] Ibid., p. 212.
[vii] DMT is known as “the spirit molecule” and is so-called in a book by Dr. Rick Strassman, a professor and researcher at New Mexico University.
[viii] Picknett and Prince, The Stargate Conspiracy, p. 169.
[ix] Ibid., p. 166–167.
[x] Ibid., p. 166–167.
[xi] This is reputed to be a part of the Popol Vuh prophecies, discussed on Ancient Aliens Season Four, ‘The Doomsday Prophecies’, presented April, 2012 on the History Channel.
[xii] Ibid., p. 168.
[xiii] Martin had been a student of L. Ron Hubbard and the Scientology.
[xiv] This is my supposition regarding how ancient shamans knew about the various plants and their effects. The spirits provided the education. McKenna and Hancock assume these spirits dwelt in the plants themselves. But logically, the spirits had to communicate the message about the plants beforehand otherwise it would not have been clear whether a particular plant or fungus would help you or kill you. Of course, “spirits of the air” as the Bible describes them would rather be deceptive and ascribe themselves to the “plant world.” The belief we know as “animism” (god dwelling in nature) easily derives from the behaviors of early humans and the spirits surrounding them.
[xv] Rahotep was a high official who lived at the end of the Third and the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty. According to his titular (title), he was the physical son of the king… He was also the “great priest of Heliopolis” and a “general,” as well as the “lord of Pe,” one of the holy cities in Ancient Egypt. (See http://www.ancient-egypt.org/ index.html).
[xvi] Picknett and Prince, The Stargate Conspiracy, p.186.
[xvii] The promoters had the brilliant idea of hiring the motorcycle gang, Hell’s Angels, to keep the peace. Their approach: shooting several attendees.
[xviii] Picknett and Prince, The Stargate Conspiracy, p. 172.
[xix] Ibid., p. 174.
[xx] The English word ennead literally means nine and was translated from the Egyptian word psit, also meaning nine.
[xxi] I document Bailey’s (and Madame Blavatsky’s) theosophical beliefs in some detail in my book, Decoding Doomsday.
[xxii] Picknett and Prince, The Stargate Conspiracy, p. 219.
[xxiii] Ibid., p. 205.
[xxiv] Ibid., p. 216.
[xxv] Ibid., p. 218. Einhorn later would be found guilty in abstentia for the 1977 murder of his Philadelphia girlfriend (in 1983). He was finally arrested in 1998 after a special law was passed by the PA legislature clearing the way for his extradition from France. What’s also fascinating about Einhorn: He had a strong connection with Charlie Rose (the Congressman, not today’s television newsman and celebrity), a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence. Rose was a strong supporter of the Pentagon’s remote viewing program. Picknett and Prince believe Einhorn was a key spokesperson for THE NINE and through his influence many came to know and believe in their mission (p. 231).
[xxvi] Ibid., p. 220.
[xxvii] Colin Wilson stated in his 1978 book, Mysteries the mediums are likely quite honest, but the source of their messages isn’t. “Wilson speculates that it is some kind of dramatization by the medium’s subconscious mind using their innate psychic powers, or that some mischievous spirit entities—whom he calls ‘the crooks and conmen of the spirit world’—have attached themselves to the medium.” (Picknett and Prince, The Stargate Conspiracy, p. 253).
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