A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

kind of sustained rapture, was especially of note when compared to the dis-ease and
displacement that would attend later alien abductions.
The messages given to Adamski were fairly predictable, closely following the lines of
messages offered by earlier space brothers, ascended masters and the spirits of the dead. In his
first encounter, Orthon warned Adamski of the looming threat of nuclear war and of his fellow
extraterrestrials’ concerns about Earth humans’ warlike ways. In this first encounter, Orthon and
Adamski communicated via a combination of gesture and telepathy (the latter reflecting earlier
occult traditions).
He made me to understand that their coming was friendly. Also, as he gestured, that they
were concerned with radiations going out from earth…
I persisted and wanted to know if it was dangerous to us on Earth as well as
effecting things in space.
He made me understand—by gesturing with his hands to indicate cloud
formations from explosions—that after too many such explosions. Yes! His affirmative
nod of the head was very positive and he even spoke the word ‘Yes’ in this instance. The
cloud formations were easy to imply with the movement of his hands and arms, but to
express the explosions he said, ‘Boom! Boom!’ Then, further to explain himself, he
touched me, then a little weed growing close by, and next pointed to the Earth itself, and
with a wide sweep of his hands and other gestures that too many ‘Booms!’ would destroy
all of this. 238
Thus Orthon noted the other side of the human potential for perfection—the potential for
annihilation. In tales of the trials that ostensibly precede ascension, the space brother myth
sometimes tended to collapse this opposition—linking annihilation and perfection, further
underlining its status as a kind of secular millennialism.
In a later journey, recounted in Inside the Spaceships Adamski ostensibly reencountered
Orthon and made the acquaintance of other beautiful aliens, including a Martian called “Firkon”
238 Leslie and Adamski, 1953, 199.
155